A former NYPD cop has admitted to swindling millions from investors, copping a guilty plea for his forex fund fiasco. Jason Rodriguez, the ex-officer turned investment schemer, who ran Technical Trading Team, owned up to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a Brooklyn federal court, according to a statement from the Eastern District of New York's U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The once badge-bearing fraudster began his finance venture in April 2020, luring nearly $5 million from unsuspecting victims with the promise of a bulletproof investment strategy. He secured funds by offering assurances of safety nets, including a "loss reserve account" and pledges to cap trade risks, which ultimately turned out to be as hollow as the returns he delivered to his investors. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace highlighted Rodriguez's exploitation of personal connections for profit, stating to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, “The defendant deceived retail investors into investing with his company based on false promises that he would invest their money in accordance with clear guardrails and that he had left the NYPD because of his success as a trader. In reality, there were no guardrails, he resigned from the NYPD in disgrace, and he lost most of the money, inflicting substantial harm on his victims."
The indictment laid out Rodriguez's elaborate ruse where he portrayed himself as a trading prodigy who had bid farewell to law enforcement thanks to his forex prowess, a tale flatly contradicted by his less than honorable discharge from the police force following a guilty plea to a misdemeanor and several disciplinary marks on his record. Between April 2020 and September 2022 Rodriguez enticed investors with wire transfers into his pockets, spiraling into a classic Ponzi structure where fresh funds fueled payouts to earlier investors, leaving a gaping $3.5 million shortfall.
In the wake of Rodriguez’s downfall, the Eastern District's point person on white collar crime, Mr. Peace aims to cut off such financial fraud at the knees in his role as Chairperson of the White Collar Fraud subcommittee for the Attorney General's Advisory Committee. The government’s case against Rodriguez, with Assistant United States Attorney Benjamin Weintraub at the helm, is shouldered by the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section with Paralegal Specialist Liam McNett lending a hand.
