Michael Shannon Simms, known as Mike Sims, is reportedly denying federal fraud charges filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) while actively soliciting evidence from victims of the OmegaPro Ponzi scheme. Simms personally acquired $84.7 million through the Traders Domain platform, which funneled investor funds.

Video footage circulating among OmegaPro victims shows Simms making these denials. He insists the CFTC lacks jurisdiction and could not have frozen his assets. Simms asserts his bank accounts remain active, he retains freedom of movement, and he possesses his assets without restriction. He frames his cooperation with the CFTC as voluntary, suggesting he agreed to let them hold something "in case there's something it were found out, that uh I didn't know."

Simms explicitly tells victims, "If you read the case, I don't have any fraud allegations. My only issue is I introduced someone to Traders Domain. That's it." This statement directly contradicts the CFTC's official filings.

The CFTC filed civil fraud charges against Simms in February 2023. Their press release clearly names him as a defendant. The agency charged Simms with commodities fraud tied to his direct role in the OmegaPro scheme, not merely for an introduction to a trading platform.

Simms is simultaneously asking victims to provide extensive personal data. He seeks communications, WhatsApp messages, cryptocurrency wallet information, and details concerning meetings in Turkey involving his co-founders, Andreas Szakacs and Dilawar Singh. He presents these requests as an effort to help victims, claiming he can trace crypto wallets and identify where their money went.

Simms, however, was a co-founder of OmegaPro, the Ponzi scheme that collapsed in November 2022. The operation defrauded investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. His position means he likely possesses detailed knowledge of the scheme's financial flows.

Simms's co-founders, Szakacs and Singh, are believed to reside in Dubai, placing them outside immediate U.S. federal reach. Simms, a U.S. resident, remains subject to federal law. His attempts to collect victim testimony and communications suggest he may be constructing a defense or attempting to complicate an ongoing investigation.

A man accused of stealing nearly $85 million, denying publicly documented charges while soliciting evidence from those he allegedly defrauded, signals a calculated effort to control the narrative. The CFTC case, CFTC v. Simms et al., remains active in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.