DoJ Takes Action Against _ Over Fraud Involving Crypto Futures

• The DoJ has taken legal action against Peter Kambolin, who pleaded guilty to misleading investors
• Kambolin owned and was the CEO of the investment firm atic Alpha Management LLC (SAM).
• He used his clients’ funds for personal profit, claims the DoJ, and was involved in a “cherry-picking” scheme.
• He faces a five-year sentence, but the court has yet to announce a date for the defendant.

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has taken action against the chief utive officer (CEO) of an investment firm who pleaded guilty on October 12 to a “cherry-picking” scheme involving cryptocurrency futures. The agency claims that the utive “fraudulently misappropriated profitable trades for himself and saddled his investors with losses.”

According to the announcement released on October 12 by DoJ, the 48-year-old Peter Kambolin, a US-Russian national of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, owned and headed atic Alpha Management LLC (SAM), an investment firm. The firm was marketed to investors as offering algorithmic trading strategies involving futures contracts.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of DoJ’s Criminal Division stated that “the defendant breached client trust for personal profit.” The agency claims that Kambolin, who was a commodity trading advisor and a commodity pool operator, engaged in a ‘cherry-picking’ scheme between January 2019 and November 2021 in which “he fraudulently allocated profits and losses from futures trades in a manner designed to benefit his own accounts unfairly at the expense of his clients.”

“This conduct undermines investor confidence in the commodities markets. This plea demonstrates that the Justice Department will not allow financial advisors to place their self-interest ahead of clients, including by cherry-picking trades. It also underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to using data analytics to prosecute wrongdoing in the financial markets,” said Argentieri.

DoJ claims that Kambolin lied to people about his firm utilizing trading strategies focused on cryptocurrency futures contracts and foreign exchange futures contracts, while in reality, almost half of the fraudster’s trading in each pool involved equity index futures contracts. The agency also noted that the proceeds from the fraud were used for personal things like renting a beachfront apartment.

Additionally, the DoJ stated that Kambolin transferred a part of the proceeds to foreign bank accounts his co-conspirator controlled in Belarus and Dominica. Meanwhile, Kambolin faces a five-year sentence in prison, and a date has yet to be released.

Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Shimon R. Richmond of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG) said that the “plea recognizes the importance of holding the defendant accountable for his actions in misleading and defrauding investors through a cherry-picking scheme and using proceeds from the scheme to fund his own personal lifestyle.”

As reported earlier by Bitnation, the DoJ seized cryptocurrencies worth $3.36 billion from a man who “unlawfully obtained” more than 50,000 bitcoins from the now-extinct dark-web market, Silk Road.