Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a consent order for permanent injunction, monetary sanctions, and equitable relief against BareIt Media LLC and its owner Ryan Masten. The order requires the defendants to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty and permanently enjoins them from operating as commodity trading advisors (CTA) or associated persons (AP) of a CTA without first registering with the CFTC as required in the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

This order resolves litigation against BareIt Media and Masten filed by the CFTC on September 2, 2020. [See CFTC Press Release No. 8231-20]

Case Background

The order finds BareIt Media did business as SignalPush from approximately May 1, 2013 through May 1, 2017. SignalPush offered customers and prospective customers the ability to obtain trade signals and to automate trading on binary options using those trade signals. According to the order, Masten controlled BareIt Media and solicited customers and prospective customers to sign up for the SignalPush service. During this time, BareIt Media was not registered as a CTA, and Masten was not registered as an AP of BareIt Media.

The Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this matter are Ben Sedrish, Heather Dasso, Elizabeth N. Pendleton, Elizabeth M. Streit, Scott Williamson, and Robert T. Howell.

* * * * * * *

The CFTC strongly urges the public to verify trader and company registrations with the CFTC before committing funds. If unregistered, a customer should be wary of providing funds to that company. A company’s registration status can be found using NFA BASIC.

Customers and other individuals can report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the Division of Enforcement via a toll-free hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382), file a tip or complaint online, or contact the CFTC Whistleblower Office. Whistleblowers may be eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected paid from the CFTC Customer Protection Fund financed through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the Commodity Exchange Act.