CFTC Charges Goliath Ventures With $400M Bitcoin Fraud

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sued a Florida crypto trading firm and its chief executive, alleging they ran a Ponzi scheme that took in at least $397 million from about 1,600 customers and spent it on fake payouts and personal luxuries.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, names Goliath Ventures Inc. and its CEO, Christopher Delgado, a Florida resident. 

According to the CFTC, Delgado and his company solicited money from the public for crypto asset trading, primarily in Bitcoin and other cryptos, then misappropriated all of it.

Rather than trading customer funds as promised, the agency alleges, the defendants used incoming money to pay fictitious profits to earlier investors and to bankroll what the complaint describes as Delgado’s lavish lifestyle. 

The CFTC also says the defendants guaranteed customers the return of their principal, their profits, or both, and sent out account statements showing gains that did not exist.

Delgado has already admitted criminal responsibility. In June, in a parallel case brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, he pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to the fraud.