The US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) and the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) have taken authorized motion towards Stephen Ehrlich, the previous CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto platform Voyager, for his many false representations to clients.
The affirmation got here yesterday (Thursday) after the FTC settled with Voyager, imposing a everlasting ban from dealing with clients’ funds.
Stephen Ehrlich, Co-Founder and former CEO of Voyager.
Within the lawsuit towards Ehrlich, the FTC highlighted his false claims that the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company insured the purchasers’ accounts, making a pretend aura of security even when chapter was approaching. Ehrlich managed three corporations: Voyager Digital Ltd., Voyager Digital Holdings, Inc., and Voyager Digital LLC, collectively generally known as Voyager.
In line with the CFTC’s criticism, Ehrlich and Voyager defrauded clients by misrepresenting the security and monetary well being of the Voyager digital asset platform from no less than February 2022 by means of July 2022. The platform guarantees high-yield returns of as much as 12 % on saved digital property, selling itself as a “secure heaven”. At its peak, the platform held over $2 billion in digital property.
A Dangerous Actuality
In actuality, the platform pooled billions of {dollars} price of consumers’ digital property and loaned them to high-risk counterparties. In 2022, Voyager transferred over $650 million to a digital asset hedge fund on an unsecured foundation. The issue for Voyager began after the hedge fund defaulted on the request to recall the digital property in June 2022.
Nevertheless, it continued its false representations to the purchasers, reiterating that the digital property have been secure. Voyager filed for chapter on July 5, 2022, owing clients over $1.7 billion.
The CFTC has charged Ehrlich for violating registration norms, as his platform operated as a commodity pool operator and not using a license. It’s now in search of restitution, disgorgement, civil financial penalties, and everlasting buying and selling and registration bans.
“That is yet one more CFTC motion in search of to carry accountable a chief govt officer for his function within the fraudulent operation of a digital asset platform,” stated Ian McGinley, CFTC’s Director of Enforcement.
“Ehrlich and Voyager lied to Voyager clients. Whereas representing they’d deal with clients’ digital asset commodities safely and responsibly, behind the scenes, they took shockingly reckless dangers with their clients’ property, resulting in Voyager’s chapter and big buyer losses.”
“When their enterprise started to break down, they continued mendacity to their clients, concealing Voyager’s true monetary well being. Amplifying their fraud, Ehrlich and Voyager broke their belief with clients whereas appearing in capacities that required CFTC registration, which they didn’t receive.”
The US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) and the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) have taken authorized motion towards Stephen Ehrlich, the previous CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto platform Voyager, for his many false representations to clients.
The affirmation got here yesterday (Thursday) after the FTC settled with Voyager, imposing a everlasting ban from dealing with clients’ funds.
Stephen Ehrlich, Co-Founder and former CEO of Voyager.
Within the lawsuit towards Ehrlich, the FTC highlighted his false claims that the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company insured the purchasers’ accounts, making a pretend aura of security even when chapter was approaching. Ehrlich managed three corporations: Voyager Digital Ltd., Voyager Digital Holdings, Inc., and Voyager Digital LLC, collectively generally known as Voyager.
In line with the CFTC’s criticism, Ehrlich and Voyager defrauded clients by misrepresenting the security and monetary well being of the Voyager digital asset platform from no less than February 2022 by means of July 2022. The platform guarantees high-yield returns of as much as 12 % on saved digital property, selling itself as a “secure heaven”. At its peak, the platform held over $2 billion in digital property.
A Dangerous Actuality
In actuality, the platform pooled billions of {dollars} price of consumers’ digital property and loaned them to high-risk counterparties. In 2022, Voyager transferred over $650 million to a digital asset hedge fund on an unsecured foundation. The issue for Voyager began after the hedge fund defaulted on the request to recall the digital property in June 2022.
Nevertheless, it continued its false representations to the purchasers, reiterating that the digital property have been secure. Voyager filed for chapter on July 5, 2022, owing clients over $1.7 billion.
The CFTC has charged Ehrlich for violating registration norms, as his platform operated as a commodity pool operator and not using a license. It’s now in search of restitution, disgorgement, civil financial penalties, and everlasting buying and selling and registration bans.
“That is yet one more CFTC motion in search of to carry accountable a chief govt officer for his function within the fraudulent operation of a digital asset platform,” stated Ian McGinley, CFTC’s Director of Enforcement.
“Ehrlich and Voyager lied to Voyager clients. Whereas representing they’d deal with clients’ digital asset commodities safely and responsibly, behind the scenes, they took shockingly reckless dangers with their clients’ property, resulting in Voyager’s chapter and big buyer losses.”
“When their enterprise started to break down, they continued mendacity to their clients, concealing Voyager’s true monetary well being. Amplifying their fraud, Ehrlich and Voyager broke their belief with clients whereas appearing in capacities that required CFTC registration, which they didn’t receive.”
