Crypto Traders Management founder fights SEC’s subpoena for financial records

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The founder of Crypto Traders Management is fighting back against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) bid to access his financial record. In court documents filed on Friday, he argued that he had a right to financial privacy.

Shawn Cutting, the founder of Crypto Traders Management, filed the motion in response to the SEC subpoena at the district court of Idaho.

“Mr. Cutting moves this Court, pursuant to Section 1110 of the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978, for an order preventing the United States Securities and Exchange Commission from obtaining access to his financial records,” the motion stated.

Crypto Traders Management grabbed headlines in July after two of its investors filed a lawsuit alleging the firm, and its founders, had defrauded them. The investors claimed that Cutting and his team lied to them that their funds were safe and could be withdrawn at any time, “when in fact, investment were simply being stolen or lost.”

One of the investors, David Powell, was seeking $609,724 in damages plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest. The other, Merav Knafo, sought $122,797.

The two plaintiffs claimed that the firm didn’t take any steps to confirm their identities or their status as accredited investors. All the firm did after their invested was send them monthly newsletters and earnings reports.

CTM was administratively dissolved on May 15, 2019. Cutting allegedly assured investors that they could still access their funds whenever they wanted. However, when Powell and Knafo tried to withdraw their funds, Cutting and his team “ignored literally dozens of phone calls, voicemails, text messages, emails and form submissions.”

As the latest motion from Cutting shows, the SEC has been investigating him, subpoenaing Wells Fargo to provide his financial records. The subpoena ordered the bank to submit his monthly accounts statements, all account transactions, credit information, all communications between Cutting and bank personnel and all documents to show online access to his accounts.

Follow CoinGeek’s Crypto Crime Cartel series, which delves into the stream of groups—from BitMEX to Binance, Bitcoin.com, Blockstream, ShapeShift and Ethereum—who have co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for naïve (and even experienced) players in the market.