If there were just one rule to follow to protect yourself from scammers, it would be the following: When someone explicitly says a financial opportunity isn’t a scam, there’s a high likelihood that it, ahem, is.
On Tuesday, that maxim held true as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency that regulates the derivatives market, alleged in a lawsuit that Michael and Amanda Griffis, of Clarksville, Tenn., scammed over 100 investors out of at least $6 million through a crypto trading scheme they called “Blessings Thru Crypto” or “Blessings of God Thru Crypto.”
The Griffises promised participants that by pooling their money to “bet on the future price of cryptocurrency,” they would receive outsize returns, the lawsuit alleges. An initial $12,000 outlay would return a profit of $30,000 to $45,000 every month, the Griffises allegedly claimed. The CFTC says the couple never used the money collected from investors for actual futures trading.
“You have been invited to this group because someone in this group holds you in high regards. There is no catch or hidden agenda,” they wrote in a document distributed to most investors. “No one is here to scam you.”
Michael and Amanda Griffis, who run an independent realtor business called Exit Realty Screamin’ Eagle, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment when contacted by Fortune.
“The defendants betrayed their pool participants, and they profited from that betrayal,” Ian McGinley, the CFTC’s director of enforcement, said in a statement, adding that the lawsuit reinforces his agency’s “long-standing commitment to hold accountable those who take advantage of victims.”
The CFTC’s lawsuit joins a host of other actions the agency, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, has brought against crypto companies and founders, amid what many in the industry have called a coordinated “crackdown.”
The CFTC’s suit against Michael and Amanda Griffis likely will have minimal impact on the crypto industry; however, it’s just as colorful as its filing against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
In or around July 2022, Michael and Amanda Griffis began operating the “Blessings Thru Crypto” or “Blessings of God Thru Crypto” trading pool. Michael Griffis told prospective investors that he was the initial “guinea pig” and that his supposed investment of $1,000 in July eventually netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars, the lawsuit reads.
He and his wife explained that their trading pool’s winning streak was due to a “Coach Wendy” and her team of 30 to 40 traders. “I know that these guys always win,” he said.
As he and Amanda Griffis allegedly lured more and more investors into their pool, they used at least $1 million for their own purchases, including a $24,000 auto loan, over $60,000 in jewelry, over $20,000 to purchase an all-terrain vehicle, and $335,000 to pay off credit card debt.
The lawsuit also alleges that they paid about $855,000 back to pool participants and that $4.1 million was sent to “anonymous digital wallets controlled by unknown third parties.”