This is the kind of update, ooooh, don't I just lurves me to be able to write.

You know - as opposed to 'Starmer locked up another Granny' or 'Merz's polizei raided another AfD supporter's home' or 'car rams festival crowd in [insert European city]'.

This is a good one for all of us.

Remember back to last week when I told y'all about the work-from-home fraud that Caroline Pham, acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), had released a statement on?

The post was fun in itself because I got to use the Trading Places clip where Aykroyd and Murphy ruin the Dukes to explain what some of it is that the CFTC helps regulate.

When I first started writing that, there hadn't been much information available about why 'staff members' had been put on leave, which naturally led to speculation about trading irregularities and that sort of thing. Later information revealed the worker phoning it in from a foreign country and the union leaders who'd facilitated it.

Which was pretty bad and apparently cost the government a fortune in wrongfully claimed salary, etc., not to mention the fraud itself.

Good on her, I said.

Little did I know Ms Pham is a tiger and, thanks to brother Bingley alerting me to another email he got this morning, she's on the horn about another far more egregious case of actual wrongful government prosecution, CFTC false statements, and just malicious incompetence. A case that she had raised alarms over two years ago, even before a complaint was filed, because what she saw in the CFTC house emails so concerned her.

No one in the Biden administration did a thing to right the wrongs they knew were being perpetrated, and as a result, a Federal District Court has recommended sanctions against the agency she now heads. CFTC operatives also went after her, a sitting commissioner, in a campaign of retaliation for her honesty.

For her part, Ms Pham says, 'Hang it all out there and let it fly. It's time for accountability.'

This is astonishing stuff. From her press release this morning:

..."Americans rightly demand the highest level of conduct, candor, professionalism, and ethics from the federal government—especially law enforcement agencies like the CFTC. As described in detail in the Court’s report, the CFTC engaged in willful and bad faith conduct by making multiple false statements to the Court and other ‘numerous instances of sanctionable behavior’ over the course of a year. This is inexcusable. The CFTC must now accept accountability so that appropriate corrective action can finally be taken to address the conduct issues, and the CFTC can put this behind us and move forward to restore the agency’s credibility and reputation.

“This case is a wakeup call to those of us who hold and serve the public’s trust. The conduct by CFTC staff and especially CFTC management in this case led to failures that were foreseeable, which means they were also avoidable. I first raised numerous concerns about CFTC conduct in this case nearly two years ago—even before the complaint was filed, and again during the litigation when I reviewed CFTC emails evidencing management efforts to conceal the false statements from the Court. The CFTC not only disregarded my serious concerns and an oversight letter from a member of Congress, but also engaged in a malicious campaign of retaliation and defamation designed to impugn my character and integrity. It is vindicating that the Court cites my prior statements that raised concerns in this case and my efforts to ensure accountability.

“While the Court’s findings have shined a bright light on the CFTC’s widespread violations of both the duty of candor to the Court and applicable rules of attorney professional conduct, these types of failures are rarely an isolated incident and point to a broader breakdown in the culture of the Division of Enforcement. This case clearly shows that the Division has for far too long maintained a culture that the CFTC is above the law and that breaking the rules is justified because the CFTC is a government agency. This culture is a slippery slope that turns good intentions into bad actions and normalizes wrongdoing.

After reading that, I'm sure you're all, like, 'What in the Sam Hell happened?!'

I'll try to give you the short story, but it's all in the court report and recommendations here.

The players are Traders Global Group, a Canadian company doing business as 'My Forex Funds,' the owner, Murtuza Kazmi, and the CFTC 

This matter comes before the Special Master by way of a Motion for Sanctions filed by

Defendants Traders Global Group Inc., a New Jersey corporation, d/b/a “My Forex Funds”;

Traders Global Group Inc., a Canadian business organization; and Murtuza Kazmi (ECF No. 172)

against Plaintiff Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”).

Now I can't begin to tell you what sort of razzle dazzle this club-member-only fund Kazmi owned was 'trading in' - all sorts of stuff like crypto et al - completely beyond my miserably ignorant trading ken and teensy household budget.

Suffice it to say, he caught the attention of the CFTC, being 37 years old and a 'trading' bazillionaire who lived large, and they went after him. 

...The CFTC in August 2023 sued My Forex Funds and its chief executive officer, Murtuza Kazmi, accusing the firm of operating a large-scale, Ponzi-like scheme. The firm allegedly reaped hundreds of millions in profits, with the CEO buying a $1.6 million Lamborghini Aventador and a multimillion-dollar estate in Canada, according to the CFTC.

“Traders Global is a fraud,” the agency said at the time. The firm wasn’t a third-party liquidity provider, as it purported, but was the counterparty to “substantially all” customer trades.

The firm and its CEO said it would “vehemently dispute the allegations brought forth by the CFTC.”

A judge the same month granted an order freezing assets of the CEO and My Forex Funds. The freeze request included a sworn statement from an agency investigator indicating that $31.5 million had been transferred to an account controlled by the CEO.

In fact, the government's court filing was so lurid, charging the company with a $300M fraud case, that the CFTC was able to secure an order completely freezing the company and Kazmi's assets, effectively shutting down his whole operation.

Central to the charges was the evidence of the $31.5M that the CFTC investigator and lead attorney both alleged had been transferred into one of Mr Kazmi's private accounts in two separate tranches.

The only problems with those allegations were: 

1) they were actually payments to Canadian tax authorities and marked as such

2) the CFTC knew it and kept after Kazmi anyway

Kazmi's company filed a grievance and managed to get most of his assets unfrozen, with the exception of $12+M. During the evidentiary hearings on the complaint, it emerged that, oh, yeah - the CFTC lawyer knew all about the 'mistake' but chose not to act on it. He was just darn sloppy, but whacha gonna do?

The lead attorney of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Ashley Burden, admitted he was “careless and sloppy” during the investigation in its lawsuit against the proprietary trading platform My Forex Funds and its CEO, Murtuza Kazmi, according to recent court filings by both the regualtor and the prop trading firm.

...The investigative shortcomings were related to the misrepresentation of a CAD 31.5 million payment, which was made to the Canadian tax authorities but was initially regarded by the regulator as misappropriation of payments by the defendants. Based on that misrepresentation, the agency received a statutory order to freeze all firm and CEO assets.

However, it later emerged that the CFTC was aware during its initial investigation that the payment was made to the tax authorities. The defendants used this information to seek a sanctions order, leading to the testimony of the lead regulatory attorney in the case. However, according to Burden, he missed a crucial email that clarified the payment was for tax authorities.

...My Forex Funds further emphasised that the CFTC staff acted in “bad faith” during the investigation.

Interestingly, one of the CFTC Commissioners, Caroline Pham, also publicly criticised the regulatory investigators for their actions against the proprietary trading firm and its CEO.

And the CFTC's defense was, like, hey, look. We're busy people, and s**t happens. Now let's get on with crucifying this guy. We have work to do.

...“Although the CFTC holds itself to the highest standards, that standard does not require perfection,” the CFTC added. “These are not the sort of ‘exceptional circumstances’ that would warrant any sanction, much less dismissal—the sanction of ‘last resort’ the defendants request. Defendants’ motion for sanctions should be denied.”

Thankfully, the judge did not see it that way and threw the case out this morning on top of bodyslamming the CFTC for its absolutely despicable behavior.

A U.S. federal judge has dismissed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) complaint against Traders Global Group Inc., the parent company of My Forex Funds, with prejudice. The court also approved a sanctions motion against the regulator.

The sanctions result from a recommendation by Special Master Jose L. Linares, who urged the court to dismiss the case with prejudice and impose penalties on the CFTC. He stated the agency misled the court in its enforcement action against Traders Global.

Linares noted that the CFTC had made errors in a sworn declaration and took steps to obfuscate. The court redacted the names of those responsible, but prior filings indicate involvement of CFTC's lead attorney Ashley Burden and investigator Matthew Edelstein.

Ms Pham and her integrity stand vindicated once again, as more shifty CFTC employees await their fate.

...The CFTC placed four lawyers and one investigator on administrative leave due to allegations of misconduct related to the fraud case against Traders Global Group Inc. The regulator cited potential violations of laws, government ethics, and professional conduct rules.

Investigations are ongoing, but the agency did not confirm the number of staff involved or specifically mention My Forex Funds. A recommendation has also been filed following a review of allegations of misconduct, including false statements to the court. These actions are under the leadership of Acting Chair Caroline Pham.

This case of malicious government overreach and prosecution also brings into focus the importance of the EO that the president signed the other day.

Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1.  Purpose.  The United States is drastically overregulated.  The Code of Federal Regulations contains over 48,000 sections, stretching over 175,000 pages — far more than any citizen can possibly read, let alone fully understand.  Worse, many carry potential criminal penalties for violations.  The situation has become so dire that no one -– likely including those charged with enforcing our criminal laws at the Department of Justice — knows how many separate criminal offenses are contained in the Code of Federal Regulations, with at least one source estimating hundreds of thousands of such crimes.  Many of these regulatory crimes are “strict liability” offenses, meaning that citizens need not have a guilty mental state to be convicted of a crime.

This status quo is absurd and unjust.  It allows the executive branch to write the law, in addition to executing it.  That situation can lend itself to abuse and weaponization by providing Government officials tools to target unwitting individuals.  It privileges large corporations, which can afford to hire expensive legal teams to navigate complex regulatory schemes and fence out new market entrants, over average Americans.  

The purpose of this order is to ease the regulatory burden on everyday Americans and ensure no American is transformed into a criminal for violating a regulation they have no reason to know exists.

The one that now forces every single government agency to specify what constitutes a 'crime.' Previously, things weren't a crime until someone in an office decided it was.

Now, it will have to be delineated explicitly as such.

What does this do? The most important part is that every agency has 365 days to list out all the regulations that have a criminal penalty and then that report has to be made public. Right now, there is literally no one on this planet that knows this information. No one. pic.twitter.com/AuA3TVXvt0

— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) May 12, 2025

There is also going to be accountability for purposefully obfuscating and ignoring exculpatory evidence to make the case against a citizen.

This is one of my areas of keen interest and I missed this. This should be being shouted from the mountain tops as to how it is restoring the rights of Americans to know when they will be criminally charged, for what, and that you can't be held criminally liable for a mistake.

— alexandriabrown (@alexthechick) May 12, 2025

In the case of the Trump administration, as I said the other day, he has made such inspired choices for cabinet and agency heads, we are well on our way to that accountability already for the harms done.

Kudos again, Ms Pham.

Ever so well done, and, man - are we lucky to have you on our side.