Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. McDonnell
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
287 F. Supp. 3d 213 (2018)
- Written by Steven Pacht, JD
Facts
Patrick McDonnell owned CabbageTech Corporation, which did business as Coin Drop Markets (collectively, McDonnell) (defendants). McDonnell advertised paid memberships in virtual-currency trading groups, which McDonnell claimed could generate weekly profits of up to 300 percent. However, McDonnell provided members with no or only minimal trading advice and eventually deleted his social media accounts and stopped communicating with members. McDonnell refused members’ demands for refunds of their membership fees. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (plaintiff) sued McDonnell for fraud, alleging that McDonnell operated a deceptive and fraudulent virtual-currency scheme in contravention of the Commodity Exchange Act. Among other relief, the CFTC requested a preliminary injunction prohibiting McDonnell from further violations of the act.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Weinstein, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 804,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.