Ex-Finest hit with charges in $3.5 million invest scheme

A disgraced former NYPD cop is accused of defrauding investors out of $3.5 million after wooing them with a bogus story about how he quit the police force because of his success in the global currency markets, the feds allege.

Jason Rodriguez, 37, of Queens, quit the NYPD on Oct. 14, 2019 after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge from a drunken driving arrest, law enforcement sources told the Daily News

But he told investors in his foreign exchange, or “forex,” trading business a different story — that he quit the NYPD because he became so successful at trading, according to the feds. He’d been a cop for about seven years, federal prosecutors said.

A PowerPoint presentation touted how his “zealous ambition for trading took precedence resulting in the end of his law enforcement career,” according to an indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday.

Rodriguez also had racked up a number of NYPD disciplinary infractions, according to the indictment.

Six months after leaving the force, he founded a firm named Technical Trading Team, or TTT, which he ran like a Ponzi scheme, using money from new investors to pay interest to earlier investors, federal prosecutors allege.

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.

Last October, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Rodriguez and TTT’s executive officer, Edwin Carrion, of falsely claiming “they would be able to recoup their losses when they finished creating a “bot” that used machine-learning-based artificial intelligence,” according to a civil court filing.

“Rodriguez also falsely promised the victims that their investments would be safe because there would be guardrails over his trading activity to limit the risks,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Wednesday.

Rodriguez gained his investors’ trust, but he lost more than $3.2 million in trades over two years and used investor money to pay for luxury car rentals and travel, the feds allege.

Rodriguez is charged with wire fraud conspiracy. He was ordered released on $200,000 bond in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday. His Federal Defenders attorney, Ben Yaster, declined comment Wednesday.