Commodity Pool Fraud

CFTC Cases: Commodity Investor Fraud Case Results in $4.5M Default Ruling and Federal Court Orders Arizona Company & Its Owner to Pay Over $2.2M in Anti-Fraud Case

Published on: November 11, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

CFTC Secures $4.5M Default Ruling in Investor Fraud Case Against STA Opus
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission was able to get a default judgment that orders Gerard Suite and his STA Opus to pay over $1.1M in restitution and almost $3.4M in penalties for an alleged commodity pool fraud. Another defendant, Frank Collins, agreed to pay a $50K penalty and $50K in restitution over allegations that he misappropriated at least $50K from investors.

According to court filings, from 2013 through July 2016, Suite marketed an STA Opus commodity pool that touted yearly returns of 57% to almost 133% despite that nearly all of the money traded was lost. The CFTC said that Suite concealed the losses by sending investors bogus account statements.

The investors were purportedly told that they could invest even more if they sent over personal checks that were voided. Suite allegedly used the routing and account information to get new checks. This made it possible for his company to make withdrawals that were not authorized from the account of at least one customer.

CFTC Cases Over Commodity Pool Fraud, Misappropriation, and Illegal Wash Sales Lead to Civil Penalties and Other Consequences

Published on: July 11, 2017 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Illegal Wash Sales Charges Result in $5M Penalty
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently announced that it has reached a settlement with Rosenthal Collins Capital Markets LLC, now named DV Trading LLC (RCCM), for illegal wash sales that were conducted to create rebates of exchange fees determined by growing trading volumes. As part of the settlement, the trading company will pay a $5M penalty and must cease and desist from the violations charged.

According to the regulator’s order, from early 2013 through July 2015, proprietary traders at Rosenthal Collins Capital Markets took place in multiple wash trading strategies to generate rebates via the Eurodollar Pack and Bundle Market Maker Program. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange offers the program, which allows for rebates as credit fees for meeting certain quoting obligations.

However, according to the order, in early 2013, to make enough rebates, a firm trader was able to circumvent Rosenthal Collins Capital Market’s own wash blocking system so he could trade against himself and earn the rebates separate from actual market conditions. He kept doing this until he was caught. A few months later, said the CFTC, two of the firm’s traders engaged in scratch trading for extended periods, again to earn rebates. This involved buying and selling opposite one another.

Securities Fraud News: Hedge Fund Manager Accused of Securities Fraud Involving Payoffs to the Terminally Ill, SEC Halts Trading in Neruomama Shares, and Commodity Pool Fraud Leads to More than $10M in Penalties and Restitution

Published on: August 17, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Investment Advisor Firm Accused of Paying Off Terminally Ill Patients to Commit Fraud
The SEC has filed fraud charges against Donald Lathen and his Eden Arc Capital Management. Lathen is accused of recruiting at least 60 individuals who had less than six months to live and agreeing to pay them $10K each for the use of their names on joint brokerage accounts. When one of these individuals would die, he would allegedly redeem the investments by falsely representing that he and the terminally individual person were joint account holders.

Lathen recruited the terminally ill patients through contacts he had at hospices and nursing homes. In reality, it was Lathen’s hedge fund that owned the option investments.

As a result, of the purported omissions and misrepresentations, issuers paid over $100M in early redemptions. Lathen is accused of violating the custody rule by not properly putting the securities and money from the hedge fund in an account under the name of the fund or in one that held only client money and securities.

SEC Stops Trading in Neromamam Ltd.
The SEC has stopped the trading of Neuromama Ltd. (NERO) shares. The shares trade on the mostly unregulated over-the-counter markets and the regulator is concerned about transactions that may be “potentially manipulative, as well as other red flags that have purportedly been cropping up for years.

Neruomama’s paper value went up times four to $35B this year despite not much volume. The company’s shares went up by four times to $56/share. (On January 15, ’14, its value was $4.73B.)

District Court Imposes $26M Commodity Pool Fraud Penalty

Published on: March 7, 2015 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York says that Mark Evan Bloom and his North Hills Management, LLC (NHM) must together pay a $26 million civil penalty for running North Hills LP, a fraudulent commodity pool, and misappropriating customer monies.

It was in June 2010 that the court submitted a Consent Order of permanent injunction against the two defendants. The court said that both Bloom and his firm misappropriated around $13 million from North Hills, which they ran for at least seven years. During that period, Bloom kept up a fancy lifestyle, even buying a more than $5 million apartment in Manhattan.

Bloom and NHM were accused of hiding their misappropriation, making misrepresentations and material omissions to pool participants, and issuing false statements about North Hills. A permanent injunction, as well as permanent trading, registration, and solicitation bans were imposed.