In violation of a court-ordered Statutory Restraining Order (SRO), Fundsz admins continue to provide investors with fake trading results.

The CFTC has also responded to an emergency motion filed by Rene Larralde, seeking dissolvement of the granted SRO.

Following Larralde’s filing of an emergency motion on August 11th, the CFTC was directed to file a response by August 15th.

The regulator did so, opposing a lift of the SRO. The CFTC did however state it wasn’t opposed to a limited release of funds so that Larralde (right) could provide for his family.

In email correspondence, the undersigned informed Larralde’s attorney that the CFTC was willing to discuss a limited release of assets to allow Larralde to provide for his family for a period of time.

But instead of responding to that offer, Larralde filed this motion.

Larralde has not set forth the information that would be necessary for the Court or the CFTC to assess this request. He does not indicate how much money he seeks, nor does he provide any information about expenses to show what amount might be reasonable.

Larralde has not informed the CFTC nor the Court whether he has any income outside of Fundsz that might be available to him.

Nor has Larralde yet provided any financial accounting that would reveal whether he has access to unfrozen and untainted assets that would enable him to pay his bills, though an accounting is due under the Court’s SRO by August 15, 2023.

As at the time of this update, Larralde has not provided the court with the required accounting.

In general, if Larralde does not have access to outside income or unfrozen accounts from which he can pay his expenses, the CFTC would not object to Larralde receiving reasonable monthly expenses for a limited period of a few months.

But the CFTC would object to any release of funds for expenses that are unreasonable, or any release that is of an indefinite length, as any amounts released to Larralde will most likely cause further losses to his victims.

Given Larralde’s motion was filed on an emergency basis, I’m expecting a decision will be made either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Separately, Larralde filed a non-emergency motion on August 11th requesting an SRO carveout for attorney’s fees.

The CFTC filed its non-opposition response on August 14th;

Plaintiff Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) does not oppose Defendant Larralde’s motion for payment of $8,660 in attorneys’ fees.

However, should this case fail to reach an efficient resolution, the CFTC will likely oppose later requests for additional attorneys’ fees that would deplete the assets available to be returned to participants in Defendants’ scheme.

The CFTC is of the mind that payment of Larralde’s attorney fees is presently appropriate,

in order for counsel to be available to help Larralde assess the strength of the evidence against him and potentially facilitate a resolution.

Basically the idea is that Fundsz victims will fund a lawyer to tell Larralde he’s screwed, prompting a settlement to minimize costs.

Another interesting point raised in the CFTC’s emergency-motion response filing is that Fundsz admins are violating the granted SRO.

On August 11, 2023, Defendants reported on the Fundsz Telegram page that Fundsz achieved returns of 2.9% over the previous
week, and that cumulative returns for 2023 had reached 98.75%.

But in reality, Fundsz’s accounts were frozen on August 8, 2023, and the supposed 2.9% returns are a false fantasy fabricated by Defendants.

Whether sanctions will be sought against the Fundsz Defendants remains to be seen.

 

Update 19th August 2023 – Interesting order from the court issued August 16th;

At the August 23, 2023 hearing, the Court will permit Larralde to testify and the CFTC will be permitted to cross-examine Larralde and offer witness testimony from their list of potential witnesses to rebut or otherwise respond to Larralde’s testimony.

Until further order of the Court, the Receiver is directed to make available to Larralde a reasonable allowance to cover necessary living expenses to the extent that Larralde can show, to the satisfaction of the Receiver, that he has no other source of unfrozen assets.

Will publish a more substantial update after the August 23rd hearing.

 

Update 24th August 2023 – The CFTC has secured a preliminary injunction against the Fundsz Defendants.

With respect to Larralde, the court granted his request to pay $8660 in legal fees from frozen assets.

An update on Larralde’s living expenses carveout will likely be provided in the Fundsz Receiver’s first filed report.