Former NYPD Officer Turned Forex Investment Fund Operator Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud

Press Release

Defendant Solicited Nearly $5 Million from Investors Based on False Representations

Yesterday, in federal court in Brooklyn, former New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Jason Rodriguez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to his role as the Chief Operating Officer of Technical Trading Team, LLC (Technical Trading Team). The proceeding was held before United States District Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and James E. Dennehy, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), announced the guilty plea.

"With this guilty plea, the defendant has accepted responsibility for taking advantage of close friends and family members and defrauding them out of millions of dollars," stated United States Attorney Peace. "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."

According to the indictment, Rodriguez founded Technical Trading Team in April 2020. Rodriguez, who served as Chief Operating Officer, pitched the fund as focused on foreign exchange (forex) investment, and represented that he was in charge of all trading. Rodriguez promised investors that Technical Trading Team would have a "loss reserve account" that could be used to repay investors if the company lost money trading; that Rodriguez would never risk more than 1% of assets under management on any single trade; and that he would not hold positions open overnight. Each of these promises was meant to assure investors that their investments would be safe. However, Rodriguez and Technical Trading Team broke all of these promises, and as Rodriguez lost more and more money in the forex markets, he used new investor money to pay older investors the promised investment returns. In total, between April 2020 and September 2022, Rodriguez solicited approximately $4.8 million in investor funds that were wired to accounts he controlled; to date, approximately $3.5 million of those funds have not been paid back to the investors.

Prior to founding Technical Trading Team, Rodriguez served as an NYPD officer for approximately seven years. During the solicitation process, Rodriguez told prospective Technical Trading Team investors that he had quit the NYPD because he had become so successful at forex trading. The Technical Trading Team presentation similarly represented that Rodriguez's "zealous ambition for trading took precedence resulting in the end of his law enforcement career." However, Rodriguez failed to disclose that he resigned from the NYPD after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor crime and incurring several disciplinary infractions.

In July 2022, Mr. Peace was selected as the Chairperson of the White Collar Fraud subcommittee for the Attorney General's Advisory Committee (AGAC). As the leader of the subcommittee, Mr. Peace plays a key role in making recommendations to the AGAC to facilitate the prevention, investigation and prosecution of various financially motivated, non-violent crimes including securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, as charged here.

The government's case is being handled by the Office's Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States <_w3a_listitem listvalue="Choose an item."><_w3a_listitem listvalue="Attorney" datavalue="Attorney"><_w3a_listitem listvalue="Attorneys" datavalue="Attorneys">Attorney Benjamin Weintraub is in charge of the prosecution, with the assistance of Paralegal Special Liam McNett.

The <_w3a_listitem listvalue="Choose an item."><_w3a_listitem listvalue="Defendant" datavalue="Defendant"><_w3a_listitem listvalue="Defendants" datavalue="Defendants">Defendant:

JASON RODRIGUEZ

Age: 38

Bellerose, Queens

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-079 (RER)

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Updated November 21, 2024