Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a consent order on November 29 for a permanent injunction, restitution, and equitable relief against Jeremy Spence of Bristol, Rhode Island. Spence, at times, conducted business as Coin Signals.
The consent order resolves a CFTC action filed against Spence on January 26, 2021 alleging that he operated a virtual currency Ponzi scheme in which he fraudulently solicited individuals to invest in digital assets such as bitcoin and ether. [See CFTC Press Release No. 8356-21]
The order requires Spence to pay $2,847,743 in restitution to victims of the fraudulent scheme. The order also permanently prohibits Spence from engaging in further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, as charged, and imposes permanent registration and trading bans.
More background from the CFTC is below;
Case Background
As found in the order, from approximately December 2017 through April 2019, Spence, at times as Coin Signals, operated a Ponzi scheme in which he fraudulently solicited and obtained more than $5 million of digital assets such as bitcoin and ether from customers. Spence’s trading resulted in significant trading losses and, as in all Ponzi schemes, his payouts of supposed profits to customers were actually misappropriated funds from other customers. The order also found that Spence…
