A federal court in Florida has ordered two salesmen tied to a collapsed commodity pool to pay more than $500,000 and has permanently banned them from trading, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced on September 9, 2026. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida directed Steven Likos to pay $320,041.38 in disgorgement and Archie Rice to pay $227,220 in civil monetary penalties. Both men agreed to the consent orders, which the CFTC said resolve all of its claims against them.
What the Florida federal court ordered Likos and Rice to pay
According to the CFTC’s September 9 announcement, the orders found that Likos and Rice committed retail fraud, fraud as associated persons of a commodity pool operator, and related regulatory violations. The combined payments come to $547,261.38. The court also permanently barred both men from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations and imposed permanent trading and registration bans.
When the agency first announced the case in October 2024, it identified Likos as a resident of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, and Rice as a resident of Fulshear, Texas, a suburb west of Houston. The two men are among many defendants in a single enforcement action the CFTC filed on September 30, 2024. The agency said its case against the remaining defendants continues.
The two orders use different remedies. Disgorgement, ordered against Likos, requires a defendant to give up money obtained through the misconduct. A civil monetary penalty, ordered against Rice, is a sanction imposed for violating the law.
When withdrawals stop going through. Customers in this pool were told their money was safe while withdrawal requests went unpaid, and the moment a withdrawal stalls is the moment to act. The first-hour recovery plan sets out those first calls in The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
How the two salesmen pitched the pool
Likos worked as a sales agent for Algo Capital LLC, a Florida company. The order against him found that he misappropriated customer funds and made numerous misrepresentations and omissions to customers and prospective customers. He falsely assured customers they could withdraw their money even though he knew or should have known that some, if not all, withdrawal requests were not being honored during the fall of 2022. He also misled customers about Algo Capital’s claimed use of a proprietary trading algorithm.
In reality, the CFTC said, Algo Capital had arranged for another defendant, Traders Domain FX Ltd., to trade customer funds beginning no later than October 2021. Likos ignored several red flags that Traders Domain was engaged in fraud and was not trading customer money as claimed.
Rice solicited customers for Centurion Capital Group Inc., another Florida company. The separate order against him found that he misappropriated customer funds, falsely touted Centurion’s historical profits and made false statements about customers’ ability to withdraw their money. He did so, the CFTC said, even as he privately expressed concerns that customers would never be able to get their funds back. Like Likos, Rice ignored numerous red flags that Traders Domain was committing fraud.
The Traders Domain case behind the orders
Likos and Rice were small parts of a much larger case. When the CFTC announced its complaint in October 2024, it described an alleged Ponzi scheme in which more than 2,000 customers deposited no less than $283 million. The central defendant, Traders Domain FX Ltd., is a St. Vincent and the Grenadines company with principal operations in Canada.
The complaint alleged that from at least November 2019, Traders Domain and its two co-founders solicited money for leveraged or margined retail commodity trading, particularly in gold-to-U.S. dollar pairs, through pooled and individual accounts. The CFTC described a hub-and-spoke structure: Traders Domain sat at the center, while sponsor firms such as Algo Capital and Centurion Capital acted as spokes that brought in customers.
The sponsor network was heavily concentrated in South Florida. Besides Likos, the CFTC named other Algo Capital agents from Miami Lakes, Miami and North Miami, as well as an affiliated advisory firm with principal operations in Medley, Florida. Centurion’s other named agents, Alejandro Santiestaban and Gabriel Beltran, were identified as residents of Hialeah. In the full case, the agency is seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions.
In the fall of 2022, according to the complaint, customers began facing extreme withdrawal delays or could not withdraw at all. The defendants offered conflicting excuses and assured customers their funds were safe, while the sponsors kept soliciting new and existing customers for more than six months. On October 3, 2024, U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman entered a statutory restraining order freezing the defendants’ assets. Claims against the defendants who have not settled remain allegations.
Why a disgorgement order is not a refund
The CFTC attached a direct warning to its announcement: disgorgement orders may not result in victims recovering any money lost, because defendants may not have sufficient funds or assets. The $320,041.38 Likos was ordered to pay is a court obligation, not a check on its way to former customers. The $227,220 penalty against Rice is a sanction, not compensation.
For retirees and others who put savings into commodity pools, the case highlights a familiar pattern. Customers were told about a proprietary algorithm and strong historical profits. When withdrawals slowed, they were reassured rather than paid. Sales agents kept recruiting even as, according to the CFTC, at least one of them privately doubted customers would ever see their money again.
The CFTC’s Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory describes this type of scheme, which often involves unregistered individuals and firms. The agency urges investors to verify registration through the National Futures Association’s BASIC database before sending money, and to be wary of any entity that is not registered. Delayed withdrawals paired with shifting explanations are a warning sign in their own right. Suspicious activity can be reported to the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement through its toll-free line, 866-366-2382, or its online tip form.
Reassurances instead of withdrawals
The Traders Domain customers heard months of explanations while their money stayed out of reach, and the orders against Likos and Rice come with a warning that collection is uncertain. A person facing a stalled withdrawal needs a record of every promise and a plan for the first steps.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit includes a fraud evidence and report log for tracking each excuse, contact and transfer, along with the first-hour recovery plan and the free credit-freeze steps for protecting accounts once personal details have been shared with a questionable firm.
Begin that record with The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked official sources.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
