Federal regulators filed parallel civil actions on Tuesday against Goliath Ventures and its founder. The Florida-based firm, they allege, ran a crypto Ponzi scheme that took in at least $397 million from roughly 1,600 customers.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission each sued Goliath Ventures and chief executive Christopher Delgado in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, according to Cointelegraph and Bitcoin Magazine. The SEC’s litigation release pegs the raise at $425 million from more than 1,300 investors. The CFTC counts approximately $397 million from about 1,600 customers. Each regulator frames the offering under its own statute and counts investors against a different threshold, which is why the figures differ. The CFTC rounded the total to $400 million in a social media post.
Delgado has already pleaded guilty to parallel criminal charges. In June, he admitted to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in a case brought by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, Bitcoin Magazine reported. The Department of Justice said at least $400 million was paid to Goliath and that Delgado acknowledged causing at least $250 million in investor losses, according to Cointelegraph.
According to the SEC complaint, Goliath told investors their money would be placed in crypto liquidity pools and earn monthly returns of 3% to 10%, generated from fees paid by traders using the pools, while guaranteeing the return of principal. None of the funds or crypto assets were ever invested. The firm used money from new and existing investors to pay earlier ones. It fabricated account balances and performance statements to mask the shortfall. The liquidity pools, in other words, were a sales script and not a product.
The SEC said Delgado diverted at least $51 million for personal use. He agreed to forfeit properties, vehicles, luxury goods, bank accounts, and crypto wallets traceable to the scheme. Goliath also paid commissions to sales agents who recruited investors, the complaint said.
The scheme collapsed in November 2025. Goliath could no longer raise money quickly enough to meet its obligations and stopped making monthly distributions, the SEC said.
Both regulators said Delgado has agreed to bifurcated settlements subject to court approval. Under the SEC deal, he would be permanently barred from violating the charged securities-law provisions, barred from securities transactions outside personal-account activity, and barred from associating with a broker or dealer. A court will determine disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The Block reported that Delgado also reached a bifurcated settlement with the CFTC, which is seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction.
The allegations in the civil complaints remain unproven. Counsel for Delgado and Goliath was not identified in the CFTC announcement, Bitcoin Magazine noted.
The Block reported that the CFTC action is part of a broader series of recent enforcement moves by the derivatives regulator. CFTC director of enforcement David I. Miller said the division remains what he called an important cop on the beat on digital commodity fraud, according to Bitcoin Magazine. A sentencing date for Delgado’s criminal case has not been announced.
