Originally Syndicated on May 10, 2024 @ 8:52 am
Amada professed to be a successful owner of an investment management company and FX trader. His specialty, he claimed, was forex trading. In 2012, he lost his broker license because he had withheld important information. Before discussing his case, let’s review his background:
Concerning Jason Amada in NY
Jason Ari Amada, a former stockbroker from Queens’ Forest Hills area, was sentenced to prison after being found guilty of participating in a fraudulent foreign exchange trading operation.
Amada, 42, was found guilty of robbing unsuspecting people who had put their faith in his fictitious investment schemes of about $489,000. The victims were oblivious to the consequences of placing their trust in Amada’s devious machinations.
Since he used deceit and dishonesty to defraud people who had entrusted him with their hard-earned money, his actions have rightfully earned him a place in the annals of financial misbehavior. His actions aptly cemented his entry into the annals of financial malfeasance.
Amada was sentenced to three to six years in prison following her conviction and subsequent punishment, which was decided by the New York County Supreme Court. This decision is a testament to the seriousness of his acts, which included misappropriating his clients’ money to take advantage of them for his gain in addition to losing enormous sums of money due to careless trading.
Amada’s actions serve as a stern reminder of the consequences that await those who break the law and prey on people who are ignorant of the threats they could become victims of in the financial industry, where integrity and transparency are highly valued.
Jason Amada NY: How was investor fraud proven to be a crime?
For cheating investors out of around $489,000., Jason Amada received a prison sentence ranging from three to six years. Throughout the three-year plan, foreign exchange was traded.
The news was made by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who found former stockbroker Jason Amada, 42, of Forest Hills, Queens, guilty and jailed him for stealing over $489,000 from victims who joined his bogus foreign currency trading organization.
For stealing money from people who had invested in his false endeavor, Amada received a term. Amada was sentenced to three to six years in prison by the Supreme Court of New York County after he signed an admissions verdict on one of his eight victims.
Attorney General James emphasized that Wall Street employees are entitled to abide by the rules in the same manner as Main Street employees.
She emphasized that instead of investing his client’s money in profitable funds, Jason Amada engaged in dangerous business practices that caused his investors to suffer enormous losses. This, according to her, was among Jason Amada’s most heinous offenses. She also called attention to Amada’s additional deception of investors by treating their funds as his piggy bank.
Furthermore, he had advanced his scheme by producing fake account statements that falsely claimed he was making money for them. This was done to trick them into keeping up their business dealings with him. She asserted that as no one is above the law, her office would utilize all of the resources at its disposal to ensure that criminals were brought to justice.
Amada pled guilty in September before the Honorable Maxwell Wiley of the New York County Supreme Court to the charges of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a Class C felony, and Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a Class E felony. Class E felonies are represented by both counts.
He entered guilty pleas, which allowed the Attorney General’s Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau to successfully settle both sets of claims against him. On August 29, 2018, Amada was arrested based on an indictment that claimed he had deceitfully convinced a client to spend €250,000, then in less than 45 days of active foreign exchange trading, had destroyed 99% of her wealth.
Allegations that Amada engaged in these acts to benefit financially for himself served as the foundation for the accusation. More victims came forward after his arrest to claim that they had also invested money with Amada and lost it in circumstances that were strikingly similar to those mentioned in the testimonies of the earlier victims.
Seven more victims who were fraudulently convinced to invest with Amada filed complaints, and between March 2015 and November 2018, the Office of the Attorney General filed charges against the company.
The claims made by these victims concern accusations that Amada conned them into making investments. Amada conned investors out of over 489 thousand dollars during the scheme.
Amada introduced himself to the public as an experienced foreign exchange (Forex) trader and the owner/operator of numerous registered investment management firms. However, he kept from his victims the knowledge that he had not held a position as a licensed broker since 2012.
Amada also omitted to reveal that the numerous companies he listed as associated with—including Evolution FX Trading, Amada Capital Management, LLC, and Amada Capital, LLC—were merely front companies with no real operations or staff. Additionally, they were not permitted to exchange foreign exchange with any of the regulatory bodies that manage these kinds of transactions.
Amada tricked his victims into believing he could trade Forex without taking any risks and that he would utilize money-saving strategies to protect their capital. This gave him the ability to force his victims to transact money with him. For example, he deceived one of his victims into thinking she couldn’t possibly lose more than one percent of her whole investment.
Amada tricked a victim into believing he was going to use a hedged strategy to lessen the possibility of suffering any losses. Amada used aggressive, highly leveraged trading tactics that caused his victims’ money to be completely lost quickly, all the while keeping over $150,000 in commissions and other expenses for himself. As opposed to the false claims that Amada made to his victims, this.
In addition to employing high-risk trading strategies, Amada allegedly utilized his investors’ funds to cover some of his expenses. Amada transferred money from the company’s financial accounts into his ones, and occasionally he would just cash the victim’s investment checks.
The funds were moved between commercial bank accounts. Between 2015 and 2018, Amada paid for vacation, dining out, clothes, credit card bills, installment loans to family members and close friends, cryptocurrency purchases, and even online gambling with the money she received from investors. He also took out approximately $83,000 in cash during this time.
Amada was able to carry out his strategy more effectively by concealing his trading losses and the money he had stolen from investors by providing his victims with fictitious account statements. Amada would invent the details of profitable transactions each month to include them in the elaborate letters he would send to his victims. These statements showed rising earnings and increasing account balances.
These false declarations served as a cover for Amada’s illicit activities as well as a means of convincing some of his victims to continue funding his venture. Because of Amada’s deceit, several of her victims were kept in the dark for years about the status of their investments. It wasn’t until they asked Amada to return their money and he refused that they learned the truth.
The Office of the Attorney General would like to express its gratitude to Trial Attorney Nicholas Sloey, Senior Trial Attorney Rachel Hayes, Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Futures Trading Investigator Elsie Robinson, and Thomas Carocci of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for their invaluable assistance in the investigation of this case.
Under the supervision of Deputy Chief John McManus and Supervising Investigator Michael Leahy, Investigator Brian Metz was in charge of conducting the investigation. In charge of the Investigations Bureau is Oliver Pu-Folkes, the Chief. The Principal Forensic Auditor Michelle Skripko was in charge of completing the audit. The Deputy Chief, Sandy Bizzarro, is currently in command of the Forensic Audit Section.
Deputy Attorneys General Fred Wyshak and Jeff Linehan are looking into the issue, and they are receiving assistance from Legal Assistance Analyst Ivan Ramirez and Supervising Legal Support Analyst Paul Strocko, who works for the Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau.
Head Deputy Attorney General Jose Maldonado and First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy are in charge of the Division of Criminal Justice’s Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau. Stephanie Swenton, the Bureau Chief, and Joseph G. D’Arrigo, the Deputy Bureau Chief, are in charge of the Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau. The Bureau Chief at the moment is Stephanie Swenton. Currently serving as the deputy bureau chief is Joseph G. D’Arrigo.
The Bottom Line
Former broker Jason Amada was found guilty of operating a fraudulent foreign exchange trading scheme from 2015 to 2018 with the intent of defrauding investors of over $489,000. He was given a three to six-year prison sentence for his involvement in the scheme.
Although he was hiding the fact that he hadn’t held a broker’s license since 2012, he conveyed the idea that he was an experienced trader. He gave a false impression of himself. Following the inquiry, he was charged with multiple offenses, and in the end, he pleaded guilty to grand theft and conspiracy to deceive.
Amada’s previous experience dealing with securities businesses revealed some past issues. This case serves as a stark reminder of the need to hold financial industry wrongdoers accountable and makes it abundantly evident that misleading conduct in the securities industry will have legal consequences.
I found Jason Amada’s FINRA reports, which are listed below with links to them:
