The dual Canadian-Israeli Cartu Brothers – David Cartu, Joshua Cartu, and Jonathan Cartu – have been notorious for their fraudulent binary options schemes around the Irish GreyMountain Management Ltd (GMM) and other entities across different jurisdictions. In Sept 2020, the U.S. CFTC filed a fraud complaint; the Canadian OSC has accused them of illegal and fraudulent brokerage. In May 2021, OSC settled with David Cartu, who agreed to a seven-year ban and a CAD 300,000 penalty. Now, Ontario’s Capital Markets Tribunal ordered Jonathan Cartu and Joshua Cartu to pay CAD 3.3 million.
The Ontario Case
The Capital Markets Tribunal ordered Jonathan Cartu to pay CAD 1 million in fine and CAD 300,000 in costs and banned him for 15 years. It banned Joshua Cartu for ten years and ordered a $500,000 fine and $100,000 in costs against him. They were also ordered to disgorge more than $1.4 million.
In its decision, the tribunal noted that “permanent bans may have been reasonable in these circumstances” but that since OSC staff only sought bans of 10 and 15 years, it accepted those recommendations.
The panes found that a total of 716 Ontario investors invested at least CAD 1,407,278.63 in binary options through the Cartu Brother’s business operation. The amounts from Ontario investors were part of the approximate CAD 233,000,000 generated by the brothers’ global operations from July 2013 to April 2017.
The Other Cases
While the Cartu Brothers settled the case with the Canadian OSC with just a few million, the U.S. CFTC complaint is still ongoing. In May 2022, Cartu Brothers filed motions to dismiss their case for different reasons, such as a lack of personal jurisdiction, arguing the CFTC failed to include any allegations demonstrating that they were responsible for any conduct specifically aimed at the United States. The case continues before the District Court Western District of Texas Austin Division.
More than 30 other investors in Dublin, Ireland sue David Cartu, Jonathan Cartu, and the former Irish directors Ryan Coates and Liam Grainger over more than $4 million in losses. GreyMountain Management Ltd was wound up. FinTelegram has reported. We are waiting with bated breath to see how this lawsuit will turn out.
As always, it turns out that such lawsuits take years and are often decided half a decade or even a decade after the fraud. This is an unfortunate truth for the victims.
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We would like to know what the Cartu Brothers are currently doing. If you have any information, pictures, or videos, please share them with us through our whistleblower system, Whistle42 or social channels.
