Ikigai Strategic Partners LLC, a commodity pool operator based in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, just got hit with a $150,000 fine. The National Futures Association (NFA) came down hard on them after finding out they screwed up big time with their Bitcoin-related operations.
Their president, Anthony Robert Emtman, is also in the hot seat. On April 29, the NFA’s Business Conduct Committee (BCC) dropped a complaint on Ikigai, an NFA member that’s supposed to know better.
What’s the beef? Well, it seems Ikigai Strategic allowed one of their funds, the Ikigai Opportunities Master Fund, to funnel money to an affiliate that Emtman and another principal run. This was a violation of NFA Compliance Rule 2-45, which strictly forbids such advances.
The NFA also accused Ikigai Strategic and Emtman of acting in their own interest rather than those of the Master Fund and its participants. You know, the people who actually trusted them with their money.
This kind of behavior flies in the face of NFA Compliance Rule 2-4, which demands that members act with integrity and fairness.
The complaints kept piling up. Ikigai was also caught mixing up the Master Fund’s assets with another pool run by a non-member affiliate of the company. This is a clear violation of NFA Compliance Rule 2-13.
But wait, there’s more. Ikigai also reportedly failed to disclose crucial information to its pool participants, a breach of NFA Compliance Rules 2-13 and 2-29(b).
On top of that, the firm couldn’t even keep its records straight, violating NFA Compliance Rules 2-13 and 2-46.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, the NFA found that Ikigai Strategic also dropped the ball on supervising its operations and employees. This is a violation of NFA Compliance Rule 2-9(a).
Faced with all these allegations, Ikigai and Emtman decided it was probably best not to fight back. They submitted an Offer of Settlement, which the NFA accepted.
By doing this, they didn’t admit to or deny any of the charges against them, but they agreed to cough up $150,000 as a penalty. And now they’ve got 30 days to pay up after the decision becomes official.
