Following the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s decision to charge 20/20 Precious Metals Inc. and 20/20 Trading Co. Inc. with commodity options fraud and other violations, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has frozen the assets and records of the defendants. The commission contends that since 2006,…
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, and the Futures Industry Association have told the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that the 1934 Securities Exchange Act’s Rule 10b-5 not be the model for how it polices market manipulation under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and…
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is charging Increase Investments Inc., Spirit Investments, and Scott Bottolfson with securities fraud. The CFTC contends that the defendants solicited about $14 million from 30 individuals for investments in two commodity trading pools that traded options on commodity futures and commodity futures contracts. Increase and…
M37 Investments LLC, M25 Investments Inc., Jeffery Lyon, and Scott Kear Sr. have settled for $16.2 million Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges involving the alleged defrauding of over 200 individuals in a foreign currency scheme. Many of the investment fraud victims were senior investors. The Texas securities fraud agreement was…
According to Commodities Future Trading Commission Judge George H. Painter, his colleague, Judge Bruce Levine, is biased against investors that file complaints. Painter, 83, claims that Levine has a secret deal with former CFTC Chairwoman Wendy Gramm that he would never issue a ruling that favored a complainant. Painter made…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are accusing Houston attorney and accountant Daniel Petroski and Texas A & M Professor Robert Watson of using forged bank records to engage in investor fraud. On May 21, the US District Court for the Southern District of…
Rosenthal Collins Group LLC has reached an agreement to settle Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges that it neglected to properly supervise employees and enforce compliance procedures. The futures commission merchant says it will pay $310,000 to settle the charges for violations that the CFTC says took place for over two…
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered Interactive Brokers LLC (IBL) to relinquish $175,000 in commissions, for failing to properly supervise its compliance employees while handling a commodity futures trading account. The National Futures Association (NFA) recently fined IBL $125,000 regarding the same matter and for failing to maintain…
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed enforcement actions in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York March 22 against nine firms with names identical to or extremely close to those of legitimate firms and exchanges. The actions accuse the firms of fraud while soliciting customers to…
At a hearing discussing the budgetary needs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Senator Richard Durbin voiced concerns that President Bush’s 2008 budget request for the CFTC would not be enough to meet the regulatory agency’s key needs to allow it to function effectively. Durbin, the chairman of the Senate…