A federal court in Florida has ordered two board members of a scheme called Fundsz to pay more than $31 million, and has ordered the estate of its founder to give up a house bought with investor money. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the order on September 30, 2026.
The agency’s release says the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered a default judgment against Brian Early and Alisha Ann Kingrey. They must pay $15,732,455 in restitution and a $15,752,455 civil monetary penalty, which together come to more than $31 million.
What the court found about Fundsz
A default judgment is the kind a court enters when defendants do not contest the case. Along with the money, the order permanently bars Early and Kingrey from further violations of the commodities laws and imposes permanent registration and trading bans.
The CFTC describes Early and Kingrey as Fundsz board members and social media moderators. The court found that they made material misrepresentations and omissions about Fundsz’s expected profits, its risk of loss and its trading history, and that they falsely said participants’ money would be traded by a “proprietary algorithm.”
They also told participants, according to the court’s findings, that money could be withdrawn in 180 days with interest. After they learned of the CFTC’s investigation, the release says, they scaled back their claims about profits and worked to remove Fundsz’s social media presence.
The original case, announced in an August 2023 CFTC release, alleged that Fundsz promised more than 3 percent weekly returns from a proprietary algorithm and that a one-time $2,500 contribution could grow to $1 million within 48 months. The defendants claimed more than 14,000 participants. The commission alleged the weekly gains were invented and that customer funds were not being traded at all.
The order leaves a question open for people who sent money to Fundsz: did the judgment put money back in their hands? A court order and a payment are different things, and the release does not say when or how victims will be repaid.
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The founder’s estate and the house
Rene Larralde, the Fundsz founder, was sued through Rachel Larralde as personal representative of his estate. Under a consent order, the estate must give up ownership rights in a personal residence that was bought with investor funds, along with more than $2.7 million in other assets, to the court-appointed receiver. The court found that Larralde took investor money for personal use.
A fourth defendant, Juan Pablo Valcarce, also settled by consent. The order permanently bars him from violations and from registering or trading with the commission, and it lists no dollar amount. The judgment and consent orders resolve all remaining claims in the CFTC’s case.
Restitution is not the same money as the penalty
Restitution is the part meant to return money to harmed participants. The civil monetary penalty is a punishment, and it is a separate figure. The release gives each amount on its own line, and the $31 million figure is the two added together.
The CFTC cautioned in its 2023 announcement that victims may not recover lost money if wrongdoers lack sufficient funds or assets. That matters here because a court order sets what is owed, not what exists to collect. The assets the estate is giving up go to the receiver, who handles what is recovered.
Where Fundsz investors can file documents
The receiver in the case is Melanie E. Damian, whom the Florida court appointed on August 2, 2023 at the CFTC’s request. The receiver’s claims page for Fundsz investors says its purpose is to collect documentation, and that the court has approved the receiver’s claims process. The page lists the receiver’s email, [email protected], and phone number, (786) 706-9916.
The page states no deadline and does not lay out the steps, and it says the receiver cannot give legal or tax advice to investors. Anyone who invested should go to the receiver’s own page or the court docket for the process, not to anyone who calls or messages offering to recover the money for a fee.
A trade report on the 2023 injunction said the court froze the defendants’ assets and appointed a receiver who took control of Fundsz’s corporate assets, including its website. It also reported that the court found misrepresentations dating back to October 2020.
How the CFTC says to spot and report this kind of fraud
The CFTC’s consumer protection page lists warning signs: the entity or the people involved are not registered with the CFTC, websites or pitches are full of grammatical or spelling errors, and there is no disclosed physical headquarters address or customer service number. It also says people who have been defrauded can report it to the CFTC or the FBI.
For anyone who lost money, the practical task now is paperwork. Deposit records, wallet addresses, screenshots of the Fundsz dashboard and messages from moderators are the kind of evidence a receiver or investigator asks for. Those records are easiest to gather while accounts and phones still hold them.
Did money go into Fundsz, and can it be shown?
A $31 million order does not mean investors are paid back, and whatever the receiver recovers has to be split among everyone who lost money. A person who cannot show what was sent, when and to whom has a weaker place in line.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit includes a fraud evidence and report log for keeping those records in one place, plus the first-hour recovery plan for the moves that matter in the first hours after a scam is spotted. It also covers the reports a victim can file and what each one does.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
