A federal market regulator charged a Tennessee couple with defrauding more than 100 people across the US in a cryptocurrency scheme that netted millions of dollars.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal district court, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Michael and Amanda Griffis, of Clarksville, Tenn., with convincing people to join a commodity pool—called “Blessings of God Thru Crypto”—to trade digital asset futures with the promise of safe investments and large profits. Victims were also told trades would be made based on the advice of a person known only as “Coach Wendy,” who reputedly had a team of experienced financial traders.
The couple, who own a real estate company, allegedly received more than $6 million from victims, despite having no relevant experience, according to a CFTC press release. Many of the victims in the unregistered trading scheme were colleagues and former customers, the complaint reads.
According to the complaint, the couple used about $1 million for their own purposes, including purchases of expensive jewelry and an all-terrain vehicle. More than $4 million supposedly sent to Apex Trader Funding, an online futures platform, was instead transferred to a “variety of digital wallets” that now can’t be recovered, according to the CFTC. The couple did issue about $855,000 in “Ponzi-like payments” to five participants in order to keep the overall scheme going, the complaint reads. But the couple also allegedly refused other participants’ requests to withdraw funds from the pool, which ran from July 2022 through January 2023.
The Griffises allegedly began their solicitations through a phone call or text message and shared a document titled “Futures Trading Overview and Structure Document.” The document deceptively read, “There is no catch or hidden agenda. No one is here to scam you.”
The CFTC’s suit seeks to compensate the defrauded victims, apply civil monetary penalties, and permanently ban the couple from trading commodities or registering with the commission.
“The promises were underpinned by the trust the victims placed in the defendants,” said Ian McGinley, the CFTC’s director of enforcement.
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