According to Cointelegraph, U.S. regulators have fined a New York resident $36 million for allegedly defrauding crypto investors by promising high returns and using the funds for a lavish lifestyle.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered William Koo Ichioka to pay $31 million in restitution to victims and an additional $5 million in civil penalties for operating a fraudulent foreign exchange and cryptocurrency scheme, according to a statement on September 20.

The CFTC noted that Ichioka began the scheme in 2018, accepting investor funds and falsely promising "a 10% return every 30 business days."

The CFTC further alleges that while Ichioka did invest “some funds” in forex and cryptocurrencies, he commingled investor funds with his own for personal expenses, including rent, jewelry, and luxury vehicles.

The decision comes more than a year after the court issued a preliminary consent order for a permanent injunction against Ichioka in August 2023. At the time, the regulator banned him from trading in any CFTC-regulated markets and prohibited him from registering with the CFTC.

Recently, regulators have prioritized cracking down on false promises of returns. On May 18, the Department of Justice charged cryptocurrency figure Thomas John Sfraga with wire fraud for promising “victims up to 60% returns on their investments within three months.”

Meanwhile, in February, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged crypto trading course instructor Brian Sewell with misleading 15 students into investing a total of $1.2 million in hedge funds that promised to generate lucrative returns.

The amount of money lost to cryptocurrency fraud each year continues to increase. On September 9, Cointelegraph reported that Americans lost $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency fraud in 2023, a 45% increase from 2022.

According to a report from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, encryption-related complaints received in 2023 accounted for 10% of total complaints, but losses accounted for almost 50%. The report found that of the 69,000 encryption-related complaints received by the FBI in 2023, people over the age of 60 were most often victims, with losses of nearly $1.6 billion.