Archive

December 7, 2015

The CFTC settled charges against Total Gas & Power North America, Inc. and Therese Tran, accusing them of manipulation of natural gas monthly index settlement prices at four major trading hubs in Texas and elsewhere in the southwest during monthly settlement periods known as “bid-week;" the defendants will pay a $3.6 million penalty. CFTC

December 7, 2015

- Garen Ovsepyan of Glendale, California, and his companies Sharpe Signa, LLC and Haeres Capital, LLC have agreed to pay a $70,000 penalty to settle charges that they made false statements to the CFTC in their notices of exemption from registration and for engaging in foreign currency solicitation fraud.  CFTC

December 4, 2015

The CFTC has filed a civil enforcement action charging David Bryant of Los Angeles County with fraud and acting as a Commodity Pool Operator without being registered with the CFTC; the CFTC’s complaint alleges that between at June 2014 and the present, Bryant fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $3 million from pool participants, claiming he was trading their funds in an account for the Bryant Family Investment Fund LLC. According to the CFTC’s complaint, there was no Bryant Family Investment Fund LLC account, and Bryant actually lost over $2.6 million trading in his personal accounts during this period. CFTC

December 3, 2015

The CFPB ordered a nationwide credit reporting company, Clarity Services, Inc., to pay an $8 million penalty, halt its illegal practices, and improve the way it investigates consumer disputes and obtains, sells, and resells consumer credit reports. The company had illegally obtained consumer credit reports and failed to appropriately investigate consumer disputes. CFPB

November 20, 2015

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities filed legal action against, and separately revoked the registrations of, two individuals who are alleged to have defrauded over 170 investors out of millions of dollars in a scheme involving investment in a Florida condominium complex called Esplanade at Millennia Condominiums. NJ

November 18, 2015

The CFPB filed an administrative lawsuit against an online lender, Integrity Advance, LLC, and its CEO, James R. Carnes, for deceiving consumers about the cost of short-term loans. The suit seeks redress for harmed customers, injunctive relief, and a civil monetary penalty. CFPB

November 18, 2015

Sentry Asset Group, LLC d/b/a Sentry Asset Management, LLC of Boca Raton, Florida, and its owner, manager, and controlling person John Pakel of Boynton Beach, Florida have been ordered to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty and restitution of $278,767 for engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions. CFTC

November 16, 2015

The CFTC has filed a lawsuit against IB Capital FX, LLC (a/k/a IB Capital FX [NZ] LLP) d/b/a IB Capital, Michel Geurkink, and Emad Echadi, alleging that the defendant solicited and accepted at least $50 million from 960 clients, including almost 700 in the United States, for off-exchange margined retail foreign currency (forex) trading without being registered with the CFTC.  CFTC

November 13, 2015

A federal court granted a request by the FTC to shut down a tech support scam that allegedly bilked consumers out of more than $17 million by pretending to represent Microsoft, Apple and other major tech companies. According to a complaint filed by the FTC, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and State of Connecticut Office of Attorney General, the defendants in the case used internet advertisements and popups that appeared to be from well-known technology companies to lure consumers into calling them. FTC

October 26, 2015

The operators of an advance fee recovery scheme that falsely claimed it could recover money for consumers that they had lost to telemarketing scams will be banned from selling recovery services, and from telemarketing, under a court order. The court order resolves a 2014 FTC complaint that charged Consumer Collection Advocates and Michael Robert Ettus with illegally collecting money from consumers, many of them elderly people harmed by timeshare resale and precious metal investment frauds. FTC