CFTC Wins $6M Default Judgment Against Florida Man Over Options Fraud

A federal court has ordered a Florida man to pay more than $6 million for a commodity options fraud scheme that solicited at least 26 U.S. retail clients for trading that never happened, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on September 15.

According to the CFTC, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut entered a default judgment against Michael Frederick Staryk — individually and doing business as Magestic World Wide Finance, also known as Magestic WW Solutions and Magestic World Wide Solutions. The court ordered Staryk to pay $547,616 in restitution to defrauded clients and a $5,907,720 civil monetary penalty, and permanently barred him from trading and from registering with the Commission. It also enjoined him from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission rules.

Per the CFTC's account of the complaint and judgment, Staryk fraudulently solicited and obtained money from the clients, purportedly to trade options on commodity futures contracts. The promised trading did not occur, and the funds were misappropriated. A default judgment means Staryk did not contest the case; the court's findings rest on the CFTC's uncontested allegations rather than a defense on the merits.

In a separate consent order, the court addressed relief defendants Yvonne Stephanie Solerti-Coto and Global Financial Institution LLC — parties named not as wrongdoers but as recipients of tainted funds. The order finds they received $110,509.86 in Staryk client money to which they had no legitimate claim, and directs them to disgorge it. A consent order is agreed to without admitting or denying the findings.

The two orders resolve all claims from the CFTC's 2024 enforcement action (Press Release No. 8992-24). The CFTC credited the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas, the FBI's Dallas/Fort Worth office, and Costa Rica's Superintendencia General de Valores for assistance.

Key facts

• $547,616 restitution and a $5,907,720 civil penalty ordered against Staryk (CFTC Release 9299-26, Sept. 15, 2026).
• At least 26 U.S. retail clients solicited; promised options-on-futures trading never occurred (CFTC).
• $110,509.86 in client funds to be disgorged by relief defendants Solerti-Coto and Global Financial Institution LLC (CFTC consent order).
• Permanent trading and registration bans imposed; judgment resolves the CFTC's 2024 action, No. 8992-24 (CFTC).

The real-world read

The headline number is $6 million, but the math is worth noting: only about $548,000 is restitution tied to what clients actually lost, while roughly $5.9 million is a civil penalty paid to the government, not to victims. A penalty is not a refund. And this is a default judgment — Staryk never showed up to fight it, so a paper win on damages says nothing about whether victims will see the money back. The involvement of Costa Rica's securities regulator, plus the "Magestic" web of aliases, is the usual signature of a cross-border operation where collection is the hard part. The CFTC's release doesn't say how much, if anything, has been recovered.

Opinion, and whose

No forecasts or projections were offered in the CFTC's announcement, and none are ventured here.

Sources

• CFTC Press Release 9299-26 (Sept. 15, 2026) — primary source for all figures, names, charges, and the court orders. Official government enforcement announcement; not marketing.

This is news reporting, not financial or legal advice.