Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced it has filed a civil suit against Jason Scharf and Michacel Shah for alleged $16 million binary options scam.
According to the regulator, the two and their companies CIT Investments LLC, Brevspand EOOD, CIT Investments Ltd., A&J Media Partners and Zilmil, registered in various countries, have unlawfully solicited and accepted more than $16 million in connection with illegal binary options contracts. Scharf also does business as Citrades.com and AutoTrading Binary.com.
In addition to that, Scharf and Shah acted as Futures Commission Merchants (FCM) and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA) without being registered with the CFTC, as required.
According to the CFTC complaint, Shash and Scharf were making false claims on offering trading binary options, but were in fact not conducting such transactions. Furthermore, the CFTC notes, the US laws require that binary options trading is done only on properly registered and regulated binary options exchanges.
“The CFTC continues to be committed to rooting out and prosecuting binary options fraud in our markets”, said James McDonald, the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement. “As alleged, the fraudulent scheme here involved false claims of outsized profits, fake testimonials, and “guaranteed returns.” And the scheme, as alleged, was massive, resulting in the misappropriation of over $16 million from more than 8,000 customers. This action should send a message to would-be fraudsters that the sort of conduct alleged here will not be tolerated. We thank our international law enforcement partners for their assistance in this case.”
The first hearing is scheduled for July 26, 2017.
