North Carolina Man Charged with $14 Million Crypto Ponzi Scheme

A North Carolina man, Trevor L. Vernon, and his firm Argent Capital Management LLC have been accused of running a Ponzi-like scheme that collected over $14 million from about 60 investors.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed the civil complaint on Tuesday, naming Vernon and his company in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

According to the CFTC, Argent Capital Management ran a commodity pool that invested in equity index futures, options on those futures, as well as crypto assets.

Vernon allegedly pitched himself as a winning trader and marketed the commodity pool as unusually profitable, but the CFTC claims he consistently lost money, dropping at least $8.6 million across futures, options, and cryptocurrencies.