The Department of Justice has announced charges against two men who conspired to steal $39 million in a foreign exchange fraud scheme. Both men have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
Officials explain that Patrick Gallagher, 44, of Middleborough, Massachusetts, and Michael Dion, 49, of Orlando, Florida, concocted a scheme in which they convinced victims to invest in their foreign exchange company Global Forex Management. The men were able to successfully solicit investors by promising them large returns on their investments. To help sway inventors to join Global Forex Management, the men touted fabricated trading results that showed that their investment fund was viable.
The Department of Justice explained that the scheme dates back at least a decade. “In May 2012, Gallagher and Dion executed their scheme by intentionally creating losing trades for the investors and effectively stole $30 million from their victims,” the DOJ’s indictment reads. “After fabricating the massive trading loss, Gallagher and Dion routed the stolen money through shell companies they had set up all over the world.”
In addition to large returns, the men told victims that their investments would be traded on an online traditional platform provided by the company IB Capital. The DOJ explains that the company was in fact a fraud as well. IB Capital through its operator, Emade Echadi, 41, of the Netherlands was also named as a co-conspirator of the crime. Echadi allegedly operated out of the Netherlands to help steal money from unsuspecting victims.
Fraud in the Foreign Exchange Market is a rampant occurrence as of late with investors all around the globe falling for scams. Last month, a similar trading scheme was reported after popular Thailand YouTuber, Natthamon Khongchak, who is known to her followers as “Nutty,” stole millions from unsuspecting investors. The popular YouTuber swindled over $55 million from over 6,000 investors. Much like the two men indicted by the DOJ, Nutty promised high returns, upwards of 30% a year, to her victims.
The federal government’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) warns that there has been a “sharp rise” in fraud schemes on the foreign exchange market over the years. According to the FBI, investment fraud was the subject of over $1.5 billion stolen by cyber criminals last year with over 20,000 individuals swindled.
Gallagher and Dion are facing a number of fraud charges including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and securities fraud.
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