'Many' victims in $100 million Ponzi scheme after man charged in Detroit

DETROIT (FOX 2) - A man operating out of Panama was brought in front of a federal judge in Detroit this week when he was charged in connection with a Ponzi scheme that scammed investors to the tune of $100 million.

The 53-year-old man ran a trading firm called QYU which was located outside the U.S. and reported generating stellar investment results for its clients. Claims made by the company said it did not have a single losing month of investments, and supposedly turned $100,000 in 2014 into $2 million in 2021.

Investors were also told they would be guaranteed returns and that the firm only paid on trading profits. This was all a lie, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a release.

Instead, according to a complaint from Attorney Dawn Ison, QYU was simply a scam where investor funds were not used for trading and instead to pay for other business expenses and to compensate employees at the firm. 

The defendant in the case, Darren Anthony Robinson, scammed "many" investors out of an estimated $100 million, the complaint alleges. The scammed money also funded his lifestyle as well.

"This defendant allegedly orchestrated a large-scale, multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme with victims across the globe," said James A. Tarasca, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office. "Investment fraud can be crippling for its victims, and the FBI is committed to identifying and working with anyone impacted by this scheme."

False account statements and fake trading data was distributed to traders in a brazen attempt to fool them into sending more money.

According to the complaint, the FBI interviewed a witness in the case back in March 2022 when they told investigators they were guaranteed a gross return of 3% per month. One victim they spoke with had invested over $1 million.

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Robinson faces 20 years in prison for charges of wire fraud.

While many victims have been identified, the FBI is asking anyone that suspects they also were scammed to contact the bureau at www.fbi.gov/QYU_holdings_victims.

A high concentration of potential victims came out of the Detroit area, as well as Canada.