By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An ex-FBI informant is asserting "my legacy stands" despite being hit with a combined $19.155m in sanctions, interest and relinquished profits over his former Bahamian broker/dealer's activities.

Guy Gentile, whose Mintbroker International employed as many as 75 staff before he exited The Bahamas in 2019, continued to vent defiance in e-mailed replies to Tribune Business as he blasted US federal regulators for pursuing a "vendetta" and "sham" case against him following the latest financial penalties imposed by the south Florida federal court.

Besides upholding the recommended $15.537m in profit "disgorgement" and fines, Judge Beth Bloom has now added to Mr Gentile's punishment by approving the imposition of an additional $3.618m in interest penalties on top of that sum. The total $19.155m is now just under $1m short of the initial $20.151m that had been sought against him by the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Mr Gentile, whose business, when located in Bay Street's Elizabeth on Bay plaza, was used by the FBI and US law enforcement as "bait" to snare international securities fraudsters, told this newspaper he remains confident that he will overturn the verdict against him on appeal.

A south Florida jury last year found Mr Gentile and his Bahamian broker/dealer, which also operated under the names 'Sure Trader' and 'Swiss America Securities', liable for violating US securities laws by actively soliciting American clients despite not being registered with the SEC. But he is pointing out that the trading regulation central to the case against him is now being relaxed.

"The SEC's case against me is a sham, built on fabricated testimony, flawed jury instructions and a clear violation of due process," Mr Gentile blasted, following Judge Bloom's September 30,2025, imposition of the additional interest penalty. "It’s not justice - it’s retaliation for my outspoken criticism.

"Their vindictive prosecution and baseless $3.6m 'interest' penalty, despite no investor harm or justifiable disgorgement, only prove their vendetta. Even FINRA agrees, voting to abolish the very rule the SEC based the entire trial on. I’m confident my appeal will overturn this verdict.

"I revolutionised online trading, my legacy stands, unshaken by this political attack, and now FINRA’s rule repeal proves I was right all along." That rule is the Pattern Day Trading rule, which limited investors with less than $25,000 in their margin account from borrowing to trade four or more times in a five-day period. FINRA has been mulling whether to reduce this sum to $2,000.

"I deny all of the SEC’s allegations and reject the verdict. As far as I’m concerned, I won," Mr Gentile continued. "As far as future plans, maybe I’ll open a coffee shop, 'Surebucks Coffee', and register it with the SEC just in case someone makes a trade there. That way the SEC can’t come back nine years later and sue the place for $20m for not registering."

Mr Gentile, in his failed bid to overturn the recommended sanctions and penalties to be levied against him, rejected the SEC's claim that Mintbroker International "profited" from being registered in The Bahamas with the Securities Commission - as opposed to the US - as a "sham".

"The SEC has demanded a nearly $20m windfall in damages against Gentile disguised as disgorgement and penalties for SureTrader’s registration with the Securities Commission of the Bahamas instead of the SEC," he and his attorneys alleged.

"The report [to the south Florida court] recommended a penalty of almost $2m based on 'the [additional] costs that Gentile and SureTrader would have paid to register and maintain registration' [with the SEC]. That is wrong."

The Mintbroker chief argued in vain that registering with the SEC would have "cost only a few thousand dollars", with new membership in FINRA for a broker/dealer of his size with just 75 staff costing only $12,500. "Notably, Sure Trader paid significantly more than this amount to be registered with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas," Mr Gentile added, pointing to a $173,324 payment in The Bahamas.

"It is undisputed that Sure Trader operated at times with as many as 75 employees. SureTrader relied on a robust compliance regime including a chief financial officer, two chief compliance officers, and a chief marketing officer among others, and also retained elite accounting firms such as BDO and engaged lawyers, tax professionals and auditors.

"This is reflected in the line items of Sure Trader’s quarterly 'Form 13' filings with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas - on which the SEC itself relies - corroborating millions of dollars in expenses for 'advisory fees and commission', 'staff costs', 'professional fees', and 'other general and administrative costs'," Mr Gentile added.

"The report’s findings on these purported 'registration fees' are a sham. Sure Trader did not enjoy any pecuniary gain related to its decision to register with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas rather than the SEC because it incurred major costs to comply with US law and Bahamian law, including with Securities Commission of The Bahamas registration and regulatory requirements." BDO was paid some $68,175.

These arguments, though, did not sway Judge Bloom, who found: "The fact that Sure Trader registered with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas has no bearing on the present analysis. Gentile and Sure Trader’s failure to register with the SEC, not its 'choice' to register with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, is the subject of the instant case."

And the SEC, in its counter argument, added: "There is no sham as Gentile claims. The court should ignore Gentile's comparison of registration fees to what Sure Trader paid to be registered with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas as inapposite. Thus the recommended penalty of $1.887m is appropriate and should be adopted."

Mr Gentile previously revealed that he and his Bahamian businesses were “forced” by the FBI, law enforcement and capital markets regulators to play key roles in undercover ‘sting’ operations targeting criminals earning millions of dollars from market manipulation scams.

Their participation even extended to the ‘bugging’, both by video and sound, of MintBroker’s Bahamian head office in a successful bid to gain evidence against a Canadian fraudster who subsequently pleaded guilty to the charges against him.

He also attracted international media coverage after his Russian-born, model girlfriend, Kristina Kuchma, 24, in a fit of rage drove his Mercedes S400 hybrid into the pool at his Ocean Club home after he ended their 18-month relationship by text and allegedly reneged on a promise to provide $50,000 for one of her business ventures.

Mr Gentile and his company exited the Bahamas at end-2019 when faced with regulatory actions and investigations by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas. However, in so doing, he bought sufficient time to voluntarily wind-up the broker/dealer himself and remove all its assets from The Bahamas.

That came after Philip Davis KC, then the Opposition’s leader, acting on Mr Gentile’s behalf filed a successful Judicial Review challenge that thwarted the Securities Commission’s efforts to take regulatory action against MintBroker for several months.