An Open Letter to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig

From Sam Ikkurty | April 2026 | samikkurty.com

From Sam Ikkurty — the man your agency destroyed for running an SEC-registered fund that made every single investor money.

Re: Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Sam Ikkurty, et al. Case No. 1:22-cv-02465 (N.D. Ill.) | 7th Cir. Case No. 24-2684

CC:

Senator Cynthia Lummis, Chair, Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets
Senator John Boozman, Chair, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Representative French Hill, Chair, House Financial Services Committee
Representative G.T. Thompson, Chair, House Committee on Agriculture
Representative Tom Emmer, House Majority Whip
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins
CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham
CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger
CFTC Inspector General Christopher Skinner
Attorney General Pam Bondi, U.S. Department of Justice
David Sacks, White House A.I. & Crypto Czar
Kristin Smith, fmr. CEO, Blockchain Association
Jerry Brito, Coin Center
DeFi Education Fund
Ryan Sean Adams, Bankless
David Hoffman, Bankless
Y. David Scharf, Morrison Cohen LLP (Appellate Counsel)
Jason Gottlieb, Morrison Cohen LLP (Appellate Counsel)

Chairman Selig,

On April 1, 2026, you wrote: "The Biden-era approach of regulation through enforcement has also come to an end."

On March 9, 2026, at the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference, you said: "We shouldn't forget that, in the recent past, regulatory agencies were weaponized against these innovative industries."

On January 29, 2026, you declared: "Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is history, regulation by enforcement is dead."

I am writing to tell you that you are wrong. Regulation by enforcement is not dead. It is alive. It is active. It is destroying my family right now, today, under your watch, with your name on the letterhead.

Your agency is still prosecuting me.

On April 2, 2026 — one day after you declared regulation by enforcement dead — you announced lawsuits against state regulators, pledging to "defend market participants against overzealous regulators." The irony is staggering. You will fight state governments to protect market participants from overreach — but you will not lift a finger to protect me from the overreach of your own agency.

Who I Am

I am Sam Ikkurty, the managing partner of Rose City Fund, a digital asset fund that was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We filed Form D. We hired Seward & Kissel — one of the most respected securities law firms in the country — to ensure compliance. We had a compliance officer. We had audited financial statements. We did everything right.

Every single investor in Rose City Fund made money. Not some investors. Not most investors. Every. Single. One. The blockchain record — 885 on-chain Ethereum transactions — proves this beyond any reasonable doubt. The CFTC's own lead investigator admitted under oath that she never reviewed a single one of those transactions before the agency filed its complaint.

What Your Agency Did

In June 2022, the CFTC filed a civil complaint against me. They obtained a Temporary Restraining Order in an 11-minute hearing — a hearing so brief that my counsel had no meaningful opportunity to respond. The judge who signed that TRO later recused herself, acknowledging that she had a conflict of interest. But by then, the damage was done.

The CFTC froze every asset I owned. They appointed a receiver who has billed over $3 million in fees — fees paid from the frozen assets of a fund whose investors lost nothing. The receiver's fees have now exceeded the alleged harm to investors by a factor of more than ten.

In March 2024, Judge Manish Shah entered a judgment against me of $209 million. This judgment was entered despite the fact that:

Every investor made money.
The CFTC's lead investigator never reviewed the blockchain evidence.
The TRO was obtained in an 11-minute hearing before a conflicted judge.
The Liu v. SEC Supreme Court decision (2020) explicitly prohibits disgorgement that exceeds actual investor losses — and there were no investor losses.

I am now on appeal before the Seventh Circuit. Case No. 24-2684. The appeal raises constitutional questions that go far beyond my case. They go to the heart of whether the CFTC — or any federal agency — can obtain a $209 million judgment against a man whose investors made money, using evidence that was never reviewed, in a proceeding that lasted eleven minutes.

What I Am Asking

I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking for the treatment you promised every market participant in America when you took office.

You said regulation by enforcement is dead. I am asking you to mean it.

Dismiss this case. Return the frozen assets. End the receivership. Let the Seventh Circuit rule on the constitutional questions — but do not continue to spend taxpayer money and investor assets prosecuting a man whose investors made money.

If you will not do that, then I ask you to explain — publicly, on the record — how this case is consistent with your stated policy. How is a $209 million judgment against a man whose investors made money consistent with ending regulation by enforcement? How is an 11-minute TRO hearing consistent with due process? How is a lead investigator who never reviewed the blockchain evidence consistent with the rule of law?

You are the Chairman of the CFTC. You have the authority to end this. The question is whether you have the will.

As you declare a new Golden Age of American Markets — this letter will be the footnote that asks whether you meant it. The contradiction between your words and this case will follow your chairmanship until you resolve it.

You said on April 1, 2026: "The days of regulation by enforcement are over."

Prove it.

Sam Ikkurty Tampa, Florida April 2026

SEC Registration: EDGAR CIK 0001842816 Case Docket: CFTC v. Sam Ikkurty, et al., No. 1:22-cv-02465 (N.D. Ill.) Appeal: 7th Cir. Case No. 24-2684 Full Case Record: samikkurty.com/legal-documents

This letter is published as a matter of public record. The facts stated herein are drawn from court filings, sworn depositions, official CFTC press releases and speeches, DOJ memoranda, SEC filings, and immutable blockchain records. Every claim is documented and verifiable.