A brokerage brand assembled from outsourced parts

In 2020, MacKechnie, described by the SEC as a prominent figure in online trading communities, launched Envi using ready-to-operate white-label brokerage services. Those vendors supplied much of the machinery behind the brand. MacKechnie supplied the audience, promotion and customer-facing operation.

The SEC found that the service providers built Envi’s website, supplied the available CFDs, provided back-office systems and sublicensed a third-party trading application. They also supplied pricing, trade liquidity, customer-fund custody, trading support and identity checks.

Envi was incorporated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines but operated in the United States. Although its identity-verification process restricted customers from certain countries, U.S. residents were allowed to register and trade stock-based CFDs, the order says.

How Envi turned online promotion into leveraged trades

MacKechnie promoted Envi through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and his existing online network, which included U.S. residents. He also recruited affiliates to promote Envi to their own audiences. Those affiliates were paid based on transactions, according to the SEC.

Customers registered through the Envi website and funded their trading accounts with Bitcoin or other crypto assets. The white-label providers held those assets in a margin account and supplied the products and trading systems. Customers used a third-party application to trade, but they saw their balances and trading histories through Envi’s website.

MacKechnie’s role went beyond promotion. The SEC says he interacted with customers, raised their issues with the service providers, processed some withdrawals and monitored the business. Envi also had to add funds when the providers’ margin account fell below a prescribed threshold.

The revenue followed the trading. Envi charged a commission on each trade, collected by the service providers and shared with Envi. Envi also received part of the spreads between buy and sell prices and fees charged when trades remained open past market close. MacKechnie received a portion of commissions and spreads as compensation. The order does not quantify how much he or Envi received.

The product tracked stocks without giving customers stock

A CFD is a contract tied to the movement in an asset’s price. A customer can take a long position and profit if the referenced price rises, or take a short position and profit if it falls. The customer does not own the underlying asset. The SEC order says the referenced asset was not bought, sold or held in custody anywhere as part of these trades.

Envi offered CFDs tied to foreign exchange, crypto assets, commodities, broad equity indexes and stocks. The majority of its CFD activity was based on foreign exchange, but customers regularly traded stock-based CFDs.

Those stock contracts mattered legally. Because each was based on a single security, including its value, the SEC classified the contracts as security-based swaps. The agency found that MacKechnie acted as a broker by effecting transactions and inducing or attempting to induce purchases and sales for other people without the required registration.

Customers faced leverage, but the order does not calculate their losses

Envi offered customers substantial leverage. That could magnify gains, but it could also magnify losses when the referenced price moved in the wrong direction. The SEC described both the potential upside and the significant downside.

The order does not report how many customers used Envi, how much they collectively gained or lost, or what portion of the approximately $34 million in deposits supported stock-based CFDs. It also does not identify any customer whose funds became unavailable.

When MacKechnie ended his involvement in 2025, the SEC says he facilitated customer withdrawals and the return of customer balances. The order does not state whether every balance was returned or provide a reconciliation of the money deposited, traded and withdrawn.

The documented impact is therefore narrower than the deposit figure may suggest. The SEC established an unregistered brokerage operation involving leveraged products and U.S. retail solicitation. It did not establish $34 million in losses or say that the entire deposit amount was traded in security-based swaps.

From launch to enforcement

The settlement restricts MacKechnie’s return to finance

The SEC ordered MacKechnie to stop committing or causing violations of the broker-registration provision. It also imposed an $85,000 civil penalty and barred him from association with several categories of regulated financial businesses.

The first $30,000 installment is due within 10 days of the order, another $30,000 within 180 days and the final payment within 365 days. Failure to make a scheduled payment can make the outstanding balance immediately due at the discretion of SEC staff.

The supplied order contains no separate statement from MacKechnie or Envi addressing the underlying conduct. His formal position is reflected in the settlement: he consented to the order while generally declining to admit its findings.

What the order leaves unanswered

Those omissions matter because customer deposits, transaction volume, company revenue and customer losses are different measurements. The order supplies one of them, approximate deposits, while leaving the others unquantified.

What it does show is how a brokerage can be presented as a coherent consumer brand while its trading system, custody, pricing and compliance functions sit with outside vendors. In the SEC’s findings, outsourcing that machinery did not erase MacKechnie’s role in attracting customers, supporting the operation and earning transaction-based compensation. The brand customers encountered was Envi, and the broker-registration obligation remained.