A U.S. Federal Court has ordered Sam Ikkurty, the owner of a fraudulent crypto hedge fund, to pay nearly $84 million to investors deceived by his Ponzi scheme. The Illinois District Court imposed a fine of $83,757,249 and a restitution of $36,967,285 against Ikkurty and his companies.
Ikkurty operated entities including Jafia LLC, Ikkurty Capital, Rose City Fund, and Seneca Ventures. He promised investors high returns, such as a 15% annual yield from PoS mining and a potential profit of up to 2,708% from a $100 investment. The court found that he failed to deliver any net profits, instead running a scheme that redistributed funds from new investors to earlier ones, resembling a Ponzi scheme.
In 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Ikkurty with orchestrating the fraud. The defendant claimed that he was not under CFTC regulation or judicial oversight, but the court affirmed its authority, stating that it had federal question jurisdiction under the Commodity Exchange Act