SEC Charges PGI Global Founder with 198 million Dollar Crypto Asset and Forex Fraud

The Securities Exchange Commission today charged PGI Global founder Ramil Palafox with orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that raised approximately $198 million from global investors and misappropriated more than $57 million of investor funds.
According to the SEC indictment, Palafox's company, known as PGI Global, described itself as a crypto-asset and foreign exchange trading firm. From January 2020 to October 2021, Palafox offered and sold PGI Global's "membership" packages, which it claimed guaranteed investors high returns from PGI Global's alleged crypto-asset and foreign exchange trading, and offered referral rewards similar to multi-level marketing to members to encourage them to recruit new investors. Palafox misappropriated more than $57 million of investor funds for purchases of Lamborghinis, luxury retailers, and other personal expenses. He also used the majority of the remaining investors' funds to pay other investors what they called returns and referral rewards in a Ponzi-like manner until the scheme was exposed by the end of 2021.
The SEC has filed a lawsuit in the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia alleging that Palafox violated the anti-fraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws. The lawsuit seeks permanent injunctive relief, a conduct-based injunction prohibiting Palafox from participating in a multi-level marketing scheme involving the offering or sale of securities and the offering of crypto assets as securities, recovery of ill-gotten gains and anticipated interest, and civil penalties. The lawsuit also names BBMR Threshold LLC, Darvie Mendoza, Marissa Mendoza Palafox, and Linda Ventura as relief defendants and seeks recovery of their ill-gotten gains and anticipated interest.