his month, judgment was entered against David Gilbert Saffron and Circle Society, Corp., a Nevada corporation, for fraudulently soliciting nearly $16 million in Bitcoin and U.S. dollars for purported trades in foreign currencies (“forex”).
Saffron created a commodity pool with the investments and guaranteed 300% returns to investors in the pool. Saffron misrepresented his trading expertise and misappropriated investor funds for his personal use. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) filed a civil enforcement action against Saffron and Circle Society in 2019 and secured final judgment against the defendants in the U.S. District Court of Nevada on April 8, 2021 for the cryptocurrency fraud.
As detailed in the CFTC News Release:
“[T]he CFTC presented evidence that from December 2017 through the present, Saffron fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $15,815,967 worth of Bitcoin and U.S. dollars from at least 179 individuals to trade off-exchange binary options on foreign currencies (forex) and cryptocurrency pairs, among other things. During the early stages of his activity, Saffron created Circle Society and used this entity to perpetrate his fraud. According to the CFTC complaint and motion for default judgment, Saffron and Circle Society solicited members of the general public to participate in a commodity pool operated by Circle Society by making false claims of Saffron’s trading expertise and guaranteeing rates of return up to 300%. Rather than using pool participants’ funds to trade as promised, the defendants misappropriated funds, including by holding participants’ funds in Saffron’s personal electronic cryptocurrency wallet and by using funds to pay some participants with the funds of other participants, in the manner of a Ponzi scheme. The majority of participants, however, have been unable to obtain a return of any of their funds despite their repeated demands.”
The final judgment ordered Saffron and Circle Society to pay restitution to victims of the fraud and permanently barred Saffron and Circle Society from trading in any CFTC-regulated markets or in any commodity interests.
If you or someone you know was harmed by Saffron’s fraudulent scheme, one of the securities lawyers at Fishman Haygood may be able to help. Contact us for a free evaluation of your potential claims today.
