A disgraced former NYPD officer has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy after he scammed investors out of millions by telling them how he quit the police force because of his success in the global currency markets.
Jason Rodriguez actually quit the NYPD after a drunk driving-related conviction, and the foreign exchange fund he ran operated like a Ponzi scheme. Rodriguez entered his guilty plea in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.
Rodriguez, 38, of Queens, could face between six-and-a-half to eight years behind bars based on federal sentencing guidelines. The maximum sentence is 20 years.
The former seven-year NYPD veteran left the force on Oct. 14, 2019, after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge from a drunk driving arrest, law enforcement sources told the Daily News. He had also racked up several disciplinary infractions, according to federal prosecutors.
Six months later, he founded a firm named Technical Trading Team, or TTT, using money from new investors to pay interest to earlier investors, federal prosecutors allege.
He used his police experience as part of his pitch, telling investors in PowerPoint presentations that his “zealous ambition for trading took precedence, resulting in the end of his law enforcement career,” according to an indictment against him.
Rodriguez promised investors their money would be secure: He said his company would never risk more than 1% of its assets on any single trade, wouldn’t hold positions open overnight and would maintain a “loss reserve account” to protect investments, the feds said.
All of those promises turned out to be lies, and he used investor money to pay for luxury car rentals and travel to boot, the feds said.
Of the $4.8 million in investor funds his company received between April 2020 and September 2022, about $3.5 million hasn’t been paid back, prosecutors allege.
“The defendant deceived retail investors into investing with his company based on false promises that he would invest their money in accordance with clear guardrails and that he had left the NYPD because of his success as a trader,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Thursday.
“In reality, there were no guardrails, he resigned from the NYPD in disgrace, and he lost most of the money, inflicting substantial harm on his victims.”
Rodriguez remains free on $200,000 bail as he awaits an April 24 sentencing.