Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, United States District Judge Dora L. Irizarry sentenced Michael Richard MacCaull to 188 months’ imprisonment for his role in a Ponzi scheme involving the spot foreign currency exchange market that defrauded investors out of $66 million. As part of their guilty pleas, the defendant and his co-defendant, Bradley David Eisner, forfeited over $28 million in U.S. currency and property to the United States.

The sentence was announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Beginning in 2001, the defendants held themselves out as traders on the foreign currency exchange market, also known as the forex market, and solicited investments from the public through their company, Razor FX. From shortly after its inception, however, Razor FX began operating as a fraud on its investors, conducting almost no trading in the forex market. Instead, the defendants simply deposited the investments in a bank account from which they paid their personal living expenses, including luxury homes and automobiles. To conceal the scheme, the defendants sent out phony account statements to investors reporting non-existent trades and profits. Whenever investors sought to withdraw funds, the defendants paid them from funds received from other investors.

Over the course of the scheme, the defendants took in more than $110 million from investors, returned tens of millions of dollars in order to perpetuate the scheme, and retained or spent the remaining funds.

In announcing the sentence, Mr. Campbell expressed his grateful appreciation to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, New York Office, the agency responsible for conducting the government’s investigation.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah Coyne, Paul Tuchmann, Kathleen Nandan, and Karen Hennigan.

The Defendant:

MICHAEL RICHARD MacCAULL
Age: 38

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