SEC accuses PGI Global founder of $198 million in cryptocurrency and forex fraud

The US Securities and Exchange Commission today accused Ramil Palafox, founder of PGI Global, of orchestrating a fraud scheme that raised approximately $198 million from global investors and misappropriated over $57 million in investor funds. According to the SEC indictment, Palafox's company is called PGI Global and claims to be a cryptocurrency and forex trading company. From January 2020 to October 2021, Palafox offered and sold PGI Global's "membership" packages, claiming that these packages guaranteed investors high returns from PGI Global's so-called cryptocurrency and forex trading, and provided members with recommendation rewards similar to multi-level marketing, encouraging them to recruit new investors. Palafox misappropriated over $57 million in investor funds to purchase Lamborghini, luxury retailer merchandise, and other personal expenses. He also utilized most of the remaining investor funds to pay so-called returns and referral rewards to other investors through a Ponzi scheme, until the scheme was exposed at the end of 2021. The US SEC has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District Court of Virginia, accusing Palafox of violating anti fraud and registration regulations under federal securities laws. The lawsuit seeks permanent injunctive relief, behavior based injunctions, prohibiting Palafox from participating in multi-level marketing plans involving securities issuance or sale, as well as the issuance of encrypted assets as securities trading, recovering ill gotten gains and anticipated interest, and imposing civil penalties. The lawsuit also lists BBMR Threshold LLC, Darvie Mendoza, Marissa Mendoza Palafox, and Linda Ventura as relief defendants and seeks to recover their ill gotten gains and anticipated interest.