On Monday, October 19, 2026, a Florida federal judge granted default judgments totaling more than $2.7 million against four men accused of receiving proceeds from the Traders Domain foreign-exchange trading scheme, which a court-appointed receiver has described as a Ponzi operation.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, sitting in Miami, ruled in favor of Kelly M. Crawford, the receiver overseeing Traders Domain FX Ltd. and related entities. The defendants are Christopher Isaac Brown, Frank Anthony DiCrisi III, Marco Ruiz Ochoa, and Dan Fleyshman. None of them appeared in the case.
Judge Bloom ordered Fleyshman to pay $1,966,870.73, the largest award. Ochoa was ordered to pay $384,563.98, Brown $245,390.34, and DiCrisi $175,891.42. Each figure represents the net amount of cryptocurrency the defendant received from Traders Domain.
Crawford filed the lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida in 2026 and later submitted an amended complaint on August 6. According to the order, DiCrisi was served on June 17, Brown on June 18, Ochoa on June 24, and Fleyshman on July 16. The court clerk entered defaults against Brown and DiCrisi after they were served with the original complaint. Defaults were later entered against Brown, DiCrisi and Ochoa on August 27, and against Fleyshman on September 9.
The receiver brought a single count seeking to recover fraudulent transfers under Florida law. Because the defendants did not respond, the court treated the complaint’s allegations as true. Those allegations stated that Traders Domain made the transfers to further a fraudulent or Ponzi scheme, that the transfers removed or concealed assets from investors and creditors, and that the company intended to delay, hinder, or defraud those creditors.
Judge Bloom relied on a 2014 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Wiand v. Lee, which held that proof a transfer was made in furtherance of a Ponzi scheme establishes actual intent to defraud under Florida’s fraudulent transfer statute. Under that precedent, the judge found, the court did not need to examine other indicators of fraud.
The judge also found that the receiver had documented the amounts through a sworn affidavit and transfer summaries. Given the defaults, she ruled, those materials were enough to establish damages without a hearing.
The court said it has jurisdiction because the case is ancillary to a receivership proceeding stemming from a Commodity Futures Trading Commission enforcement action against Traders Domain, Case No. 24-cv-23745, which is assigned to a different judge in the same district. The order said the defendants conducted business with, or received funds from, entities operating a fraudulent venture partly in South Florida.
The receiver also asked for post-judgment interest. The order does not address that request separately.
Judge Bloom said final judgment will be entered in a separate document, in accordance with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 58.
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