Michael Stewart Mediatrix Forex Fraud Sentence: BadPD Wants The Investor Ledger

BadPD source-check, July 5, 2026: the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado says Michael Shawn Stewart, 63, of Scottsdale, Arizona, was sentenced to 288 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $93,273,838.16 in restitution after a federal jury found him guilty in May 2024 of 14 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

This is conviction-and-sentencing coverage. It is not allegation-only coverage. The accountability question now is not whether the conviction exists. The question is whether victims, regulators, and the public will get a clear investor ledger showing who was harmed, what was recovered, what remains missing, and which controls failed while Mediatrix Capital and Blue Isle Markets sold a foreign-exchange story that DOJ says was false.

BadPD is treating this as a consumer and investor-protection story. The case is Colorado-based in federal court, but DOJ says the scheme reached Coloradans and clients worldwide. The public should not have to read a sentencing release, an SEC litigation release, and an appellate order to understand the same basic pattern: promised transparency, promised liquidity, promised trading history, hidden losses, fees to insiders, and a hole where investor money should have been.

What DOJ Says Was Sentenced

DOJ’s July 1, 2026 release says Stewart was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $93 million in restitution. DOJ says co-defendant Bryant Edwin Sewall had already been sentenced to 23 years in November 2024 after being convicted on the same counts.

According to DOJ, trial evidence showed Stewart and Sewall were owners and executives of companies operating on Caribbean islands under the names Mediatrix Capital and Blue Isle Markets. DOJ says they provided false and fraudulent information about an algorithm-based foreign currency exchange trading program to potential investors and to salespeople used to solicit investors.

DOJ gives a specific example. Stewart and Sewall allegedly represented that Mediatrix had successful forex trading history going back to 2013 with no losing months. DOJ says that was false because Mediatrix did not exist until 2014 and its trading history included many months of net losses.

The release says Mediatrix promised investors “100% Transparency,” “100% Liquidity,” and “World Class Returns.” DOJ says the account statements shown to investors highlighted only positive trades and hid massive losses that reduced investor accounts. By the end of the scheme, DOJ says Stewart and Sewall had promised investors over $179 million, but only $9.8 million remained in the accounts. DOJ says the internal name for that gap was “the hole.”

DOJ also says the defendants lost about $32 million in trades while rewarding themselves with about $28 million in performance fees. It says they used Blue Isle to convert investor money into more than $45 million in markup fees. DOJ says they spent money on real estate, boats, cars, jewelry, and other luxuries.

The SEC Saw The Control Problem Years Earlier

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s September 2019 litigation release adds the earlier civil-enforcement frame. The SEC announced an emergency action, temporary restraining order, and asset freeze tied to an alleged fraudulent international trading program that it said placed more than $125 million of investor funds at risk.

At the SEC stage, the allegations included false claims that the strategy had never had an unprofitable month and had returned more than 1,600 percent since inception. The SEC also alleged falsified account statements, Ponzi-like payments, and more than $35 million in investor money misappropriated for personal use, including luxury properties and vehicles.

Those were civil allegations in 2019. The federal criminal case now gives the public a later conviction-and-sentencing record for Stewart and Sewall. The timeline matters. Investors saw sales claims. The SEC froze assets. A grand jury indicted. A jury convicted. The Tenth Circuit later affirmed Sewall’s conviction. Stewart has now been sentenced.

The Appellate Record Shows How The Pitch Worked

The Tenth Circuit’s April 9, 2026 order and judgment in Sewall’s appeal is a useful public receipt because it describes the structure in court language. The order says Mediatrix accepted client money beginning in March 2016 and invested in the forex market. It describes Stewart, Sewall, and Michael Young as partners with different roles: trading, operations, and marketing.

The order says Mediatrix worked through a broker called Divisa, later named Equiti. It also says Stewart, Sewall, and Young established Blue Isle to hold client funds and charge markups on trades. The public-control point is obvious: investors were not just buying into a trading program. They were trusting a system that included marketing, trading, account statements, brokerage markup, and representations about results.

The appellate order says the government presented evidence that Mediatrix brought in about $129 million in client funds between March 2016 and September 2019. It also says falsehoods infected marketing pitches and materials, especially the claim that the trading algorithm had never had a losing month. The order describes the investor statement problem: clients saw closed profit-and-loss information, while open losing trades were hidden from them.

Confirmed, Alleged, Pending, Limited

Confirmed: DOJ says Stewart was sentenced to 288 months and ordered to pay $93,273,838.16 in restitution. DOJ says a jury convicted him in May 2024 on 14 wire fraud counts and one conspiracy count. DOJ says Sewall was sentenced to 23 years in 2024 after conviction on the same counts. DOJ says the case number is 21-cr-00034-WJM.

Confirmed by source mix: The SEC filed a 2019 civil enforcement action and asset-freeze release. The Tenth Circuit affirmed Sewall’s conviction in April 2026. KOLD/AZFamily published local Arizona coverage of Stewart’s sentence. CFTC and Investor.gov resources support the consumer warning frame around forex pitches and investment-fraud red flags.

Alleged historically: The SEC’s 2019 release used allegation-stage language for its civil complaint, including the more than $125 million at-risk figure, false return claims, falsified account statements, Ponzi-like payments, and alleged misappropriation. Those allegations are useful background, but BadPD is labeling them by source and date rather than treating every SEC allegation as a final criminal finding.

Pending: direct judgment documents, restitution distribution process, receiver status, victim-payment schedule, remaining asset recovery, forfeiture records, full loss calculations, any ongoing civil distributions, broker-related litigation, and whether investors have a clear public portal for updates.

Limited: BadPD has not pulled paid PACER filings in this run. The article relies on DOJ, SEC, the Tenth Circuit public opinion, local reporting, CFTC investor materials, and Investor.gov. Direct docket documents should be added when available.

Why The Investor Ledger Matters

A prison sentence punishes a defendant. It does not automatically tell victims what happens next. Investors need to know whether restitution is collectible, whether recovered assets exist, whether a receiver or claims administrator is handling distributions, whether victims must submit information, and whether any deadlines apply.

The ledger does not need to expose private victim identities. It can be privacy-safe. It can list investor counts, state and country buckets, total claims, recovered assets, paid distributions, pending claims, disputed claims, forfeited assets, administrative costs, and remaining shortfall. That would let victims and the public see the distance between a restitution order and actual recovery.

BadPD also wants the sales-channel ledger. DOJ says the defendants used salespeople to solicit investors. The public needs to know who those sales channels were, how they were compensated, what scripts or decks they used, whether any were registered, whether any ignored red flags, and whether any paid commissions have been clawed back.

The fee ledger matters too. DOJ says the defendants rewarded themselves with about $28 million in performance fees and used Blue Isle to convert investor money into more than $45 million in markup fees. Those are not minor side numbers. They are the control failure. If losses were hidden and fees continued, the core question becomes who could see the real account state and who was allowed to profit while investors saw a false picture.

What Investors Should Watch For

CFTC and NASAA warn that off-exchange forex trading by retail investors is extremely risky and can be outright fraud. CFTC’s own forex-fraud advisory warns that forex markets are volatile and not a place for money a person cannot afford to lose. Investor.gov highlights common fraud red flags, including promises of high returns with little or no risk, pressure to act, fake testimonials, and promises of wealth.

The Mediatrix pattern DOJ described fits the reason those warnings exist. Investors were allegedly told a story about steady algorithmic returns and transparency. DOJ says the real record included losing months, hidden losses, manipulated statements, and a giant shortfall. The useful public lesson is not “all forex is fraud.” It is that complex trading language can become a shield when investors are denied the full ledger.

Anyone who believes they were harmed by this case should use direct official channels, not internet rumor. That can include the court docket, DOJ victim-witness contacts, any receiver or claims administrator identified in court records, the SEC, CFTC, state securities regulators, or a qualified attorney. BadPD is not giving legal or investment advice. Eligibility, deadlines, and recovery rights need official confirmation.

Records BadPD Wants Published

First, publish the Stewart judgment and restitution order in plain public language. The public needs the sentence, restitution amount, supervised-release terms, forfeiture status, surrender or custody status, appeal posture, and victim-payment procedure.

Second, publish the investor recovery ledger. That means total victims, total claims, accepted claims, rejected claims, paid claims, remaining shortfall, recovered assets, asset-sale proceeds, clawback actions, and administrative costs. A $93 million restitution order sounds large. The question victims care about is how much money actually comes back.

Third, publish the control ledger. That means sales materials, monthly statements, performance-fee calculations, Blue Isle markup records, broker relationships, bank records, and any independent administrator claims. If investors were promised transparency and liquidity, the records should show who had the real numbers.

Fourth, publish the warning ledger. Regulators should explain when the first complaint arrived, what tipped off investigators, how the SEC asset freeze protected remaining funds, and whether earlier warnings could have limited the damage. The point is not hindsight theater. The point is to prevent the next algorithm-branded pitch from hiding the same kind of hole.

What A Useful Recovery Page Should Include

A useful recovery page would not need to argue the case again. It would start with the case number, the defendants, the sentencing dates, the restitution amount, and the official victim-contact route. Then it would answer the practical questions victims ask first: do I need to file anything, has a claim deadline passed, who administers distributions, and how do I update my contact information?

It should also separate criminal restitution from civil recovery. A restitution order is not the same thing as money in a victim’s account. SEC asset recovery, receiver distributions, forfeiture, restitution, private litigation, and clawbacks can each move on different tracks. A public chart would help victims avoid confusion and would reduce the odds that new scammers pretend to be recovery agents.

That last point matters. Major fraud cases often produce a second wave of fraud. People who already lost money can be targeted again by imposters who claim they can recover funds for a fee. A clean official recovery page makes it harder for those imposters to operate. It tells victims which emails, phone numbers, court filings, and agency pages are real.

The BadPD Bottom Line

Stewart is going to federal prison for 24 years. Sewall is already sentenced to 23 years. That is the criminal outcome. The consumer-accountability outcome is still unfinished until victims can see the recovery path.

BadPD wants the investor ledger, the fee ledger, the sales-channel ledger, and the recovery ledger. If a trading program promises total transparency while hiding losses, the cleanup should be more transparent than the pitch ever was.

Source Trail

• DOJ District of Colorado Stewart sentencing release (July 1, 2026) – Primary current sentencing source for Michael Shawn Stewart: 288 months, $93,273,838.16 restitution, Mediatrix/Blue Isle scheme facts, promised $179 million, $9.8 million left, FBI investigation, case number 21-cr-00034-WJM.
• DOJ District of Colorado Sewall sentencing release (November 25, 2024) – Prior co-defendant sentencing source for Bryant Edwin Sewall, matching trial facts, 23-year sentence, $93 million restitution, and case number.
• SEC litigation release: Mediatrix Capital Inc., et al. (September 18, 2019) – SEC emergency action and asset-freeze release alleging more than $125 million at risk, false no-loss/1,600% return claims, falsified statements, Ponzi-like payments, and $35 million misappropriation allegations.
• Tenth Circuit order and judgment in United States v. Sewall (April 9, 2026) – Official appellate order affirming Sewall conviction and describing Mediatrix/Blue Isle structure, false no-losing-month marketing, hidden floating losses, trial evidence, and procedural posture.
• KOLD / Arizona Family local report (July 1, 2026) – Arizona local report on Scottsdale resident Michael Shawn Stewart sentence, restitution, Mediatrix/Blue Isle facts, and DOJ-quoted figures.
• CFTC/NASAA Investor Alert: Foreign Exchange Currency Fraud (Accessed July 5, 2026) – Official investor alert warning retail investors that off-exchange forex trading is risky and can be fraudulent.
• CFTC Fraud Advisory: Foreign Currency (Forex) Fraud (Accessed July 5, 2026) – Official CFTC forex-fraud advisory with red-flag context and consumer protection framing.
• Investor.gov red flags of fraud (Accessed July 5, 2026) – SEC investor-education site listing common fraud red flags such as high returns with little or no risk, pressure, fake testimonials, and promises of wealth.