New York Man to Pay $36 Million for Defrauding Victims in Forex and Crypto Scheme

William Koo Ichioka, formerly of San Francisco, will pay $31 million in restitution to the victims of his fraudulent scheme and $5 million in civil monetary penalty.

A New York man has been ordered to pay a total of $36 million for defrauding victims in a scheme involving forex and crypto.

On Sept. 20, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced in a press release that William Koo Ichioka, formerly of San Francisco, will pay $31 million in restitution to the victims of his fraudulent scheme and $5 million in a civil monetary penalty.

The fine was handed by Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in an order given on Sept. 19.

The CFTC filed civil charges against Ichioka in June 2023. The charges involved the fraudulent soliciting and stealing over $21 million from more than 100 commodity pool participants. Ichioka admitted to the charges and agreed to an order of judgment.

The allegations against Ichioka relate to a scheme from 2018 that lied to unsuspecting participants in investment funds.

Ichioka claimed that investors would get a 10% return on their funds every 30 days. However, this did not happen and Ichioka commingled funds from victims with his own money, using these funds on personal expenses such as rent, jewelry, and luxury vehicles.

“To conceal his fraudulent activity, Ichioka overstated the value of assets he held by generating false financial documents and presenting false account statements to participants,” the CFTC noted in the press release.

The Ichioka case also had a parallel criminal case filed by the Department of Justice. The charges included wire fraud, false tax returns, and commodities fraud. For the five counts, the court sentenced Ichioka to 48 months in prison.

He also received a 5-year supervised release sentence. The court imposed a $5 million fine and $31,330,715.86 in restitution.

On August 14, 2023, the court ordered a permanent injunction and prohibited Ichioka from any future violations. He was also barred from trading in any CFTC-regulated markets or registering with the regulator.

According to the CFTC, that order and the monetary penalty mark the end of CFTC’s enforcement action against the New York resident.