Former New York cop pleads guilty to foreign exchange fraud conspiracy

Former New York City police officer Jason Rodriguez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to his role as operating director of a foreign exchange investment fund, prosecutors announced Thursday in a press release.

Rodriguez, 38, was indicted in Brooklyn federal court in February after lying to investors and losing most of the $4.8 million invested in his forex investment fund, Technical Trading Team. To date, approximately $3.5 million of those funds have not been returned to investors, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

“The defendant deceived retail investors into investing in his company based on false promises that he would invest their money in accordance with clear safeguards and that he left the NYPD because of his success as a trader,” said Breon Pace, U.S. attorney for the police. Eastern District of New York, said. “In reality, there was no guardrail, he resigned from the NYPD in disgrace, and he lost most of the money, inflicting considerable harm on his victims.”

Rodriguez falsely reassured investors that if the company lost money, he could reimburse them through a “loss reserve account” and that he would not risk more than 1% of assets under management on a single transaction.

“[Rodriguez] “He also embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars which he used to pay for luxury car rentals, travel and other expenses,” Peace said in February after the indictment.

Rodriguez served as an NYPD officer for about seven years before pleading guilty to a minor misdemeanor and resigning. He then created the TTT fund in 2020 with CEO Edwin Carrion.

Previous court records show Carrion pleaded guilty to the scheme in January. He has not yet been sentenced in this case.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil suit in 2023 against TTT, Rodriguez and Carrion in Brooklyn federal court, accusing them of making “false and misleading statements regarding their investment backgrounds and the security of the investment of the TTT pool with participants and potential participants. “

The complaint also alleges that after losing more than $3 million, Rodriguez and Carrion assured investors that they could recoup losses using artificial intelligence-based trading algorithms.

The suit was stayed in March by District Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr.

— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.