Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued on Monday an order filing and charged Cindium Inc. and Einstein Exchange Group Inc. and their principal Irina Feldman with solicitation fraud and misappropriation in connection with operating a commodity pool that offered investment instruments, including forex.
In addition, the CFTC also charged the two companies acted as Commodity Pool Operators (CPOs) and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs), but failed to register as such, as required.
The regulator has ordered Feldman and the two companies to jointly pay restitution of $401,000 and a $200,000 civil monetary penalty. They are permanently prohibited from registering with the CFTC or from trading on any registered entity.
According to the CFTC’s statement, Feldman, through Cindium Inc. and Einstein Exchange Group, fraudulently solicited, accepted, and received approximately $401,000 as “loans” from at least 30 individuals during the period between December 2015 until May 2016. The victims were asked to participate in a commodity pool by loaning money that would be used to trade off-exchange forex and commodity futures, among other investments, but they did not trade any of these funds and had no active trading accounts in their names. The pool operators also guaranteed that principal investments would never lose value. Under the fraud scheme, Feldman and the two companies misappropriated the money and investor funds were used to pay “monthly returns” of 2%-5% to existing investors, as well as for business and personal expenses.
Feldmen acted as CEO, owner and controlling person of both Cindium and Einstein Exchange Group. She and the two companies are based in California.
The CFTC noted investors should be cautious and check on brokers with which they choose to engage as in case of wrongdoing traders may not be able to recover their funds.
We strongly advice you to be cautious regarding your investments and to only choose brokers and investment companies that are regulated by reputable financial watchdogs, such as the CFTC, CySEC, FINMA, FCA, etc.
