A Florida man has been arrested by the FBI on 21 counts of wire fraud amid allegations he operated a forex Ponzi scheme, collecting more than $10.2 million and pocketing $1 million for himself.
The announcement of the arrest of Patrick H. Rakotonanahary, 34, of Punta Gorda, Fla., was made in Hawaii after a joint probe by the FBI, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the State of Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA).
His arrest was credited to a joint investigation by the agencies, which operated under the umbrella of the Interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, the FBI said.
President Obama formed the task force in November.
“[I]nstead of using investor money to engage in Forex trading, Rakotonanahary primarily paid investment returns to earlier investors with investment funds from later investors as part of a ‘Ponzi scheme,’ using only about $1,864,000 for Forex trading, which generated losses of $814,806,” the FBI said. “Rakotonanahary used approximately $8,375,703 to pay investment returns and another $1 million personally.”
Most of Rakotonanahary’s 100 investors hailed from Hawaii, the FBI said.
Separately, CFTC announced yet another Ponzi case — this one in North Carolina.
The agency charged Dennis Todd Hagemann and Yellowstone Partners Inc., both of Raleigh, with operating a forex Ponzi scheme involving the fraudulent solicitation of at least $700,000 from at least nine individuals.
Hagemann was arrested and jailed by North Carolina state authorities.
In yet another bizarre Ponzi twist, CFTC said Hagemann purported to have a tie to former Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin.
Hagemann failed to inform a potential investor “that Mr. Yeltsin is deceased, and was deceased at the time he made the representation,” CFTC said.