Brooklyn Man Pleads Guilty to Securities and Binary Options Fraud Scheme

Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Yehuda Belsky, the owner of Brooklyn-based Y Trading, LLC, pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud, one count of failure to register as a commodities trading advisor and one count of misappropriation of customer funds.  The plea was entered before United States District Court Judge Allyne R. Ross.   When sentenced, Belsky faces up to 40 years in prison, restitution in the full amount of each victim’s losses, forfeiture of $800,000 and a fine of up to $5 million. 

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, William F. Sweeney, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and James McDonald, Director, Division of Enforcement, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), announced the guilty plea.

“With his guilty plea today, Belsky is held responsible for deceiving and defrauding investors, and hiding behind an alias to conceal his permanent ban from trading by the CFTC,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue.  “This Office, together with our law enforcement partners, will continue to protect the integrity of the financial marketplace from dishonest operators like the defendant.”

In 2008, Belsky was permanently barred by the CFTC from trading in commodity futures transactions and options.  Nevertheless, from March 2014 to October 2018, Belsky presented himself to potential investors – using an alias – as an experienced securities and commodities trader.  Belsky promised his victims that he would invest their money by trading securities or binary options, a type of investment in which investors are promised an opportunity to be paid predetermined amounts based upon the price of securities, commodities or other investments at particular points in time.  Instead of doing as promised, Belsky misappropriated his victims’ investments for his personal use and to reimburse investors who had demanded repayment.

 The government’s case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Sarah Wilson Rocha of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section under the supervision of the United States Attorney’s Office, Business and Securities Fraud Section.  The Office’s Civil Division is handling forfeiture matters.

The Defendant:

YEHUDA BELSKY (also known as “Jay Bell”)
Age:  47
Brooklyn, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 18-CR-504 (ARR)