Archive

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

October 21, 2015

The CFTC sued Gregory L. Gramalegui of Vail, Colorado, for fraud, making false statements to the CFTC, failing to make required advertising disclosures, and violating a prior CFTC administrative order.  CFTC

October 20, 2015

Alan James Watson, Cash Flow Financial LLC, and Michael S. Potts have been ordered to pay over $91 million in fines and restitution for operating a commodity pool Ponzi scheme.  CFTC

October 20, 2015

A federal judge has ordered John R. Bullar and his company, Executive Management Advisors LLC, to pay over $31 million in penalties and restitution for fraud, misappropriation, embezzlement, and operating a Ponzi scheme.  CFTC

October 20, 2015

The CFTC ordered BNP Paribas Securities Corp. to pay a $140,000 penalty on charges that the company improperly invested customer segregated funds.  CFTC

October 19, 2015

The CFTC filed a lawsuit against Igor B. Oystacher and his proprietary trading company, 3 Red Trading LLC, both of Chicago, Illinois, charging the defendants with spoofing and employment of a manipulative and deceptive device while trading futures on four different futures exchanges.  CFTC

October 14, 2015

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio entered judgment against Bradley A. Miklovich of Stow, Ohio, resolving charges that Miklovich, a former Associated Person of Rice Investment Company made unauthorized trades for two customers’ accounts and falsified a customer’s account statements and Rice’s internal documents. The order requires Miklovich to make full restitution to Rice in the amount of $566,360 and to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty.  CFTC

October 5, 2015

Alexander Glytenko and his company, Direct Investment Products, Inc., will pay over $3.8 million in restitution and penalties in connection with a commodity pool fraud scheme.  CFTC

October 5, 2015

The head of a sham debt relief operation agreed to a judgment of more than $7.9 million to settle FTC charges that he deceived consumers and charged them thousands of dollars while providing nothing in return. In a complaint filed in May 2014, the FTC alleged that the DebtPro 123 LLC defendants falsely told consumers their programs would settle all of their debts and repair their credit. Then they told them to stop paying and communicating with creditors, which led to more debt and worse credit because of accrued interest, late charges, creditor lawsuits, garnished wages, and sometimes bankruptcy. FTC

October 1, 2015

The FTC is mailing 23,406 checks totaling more than $3.7 million to consumers who lost money after buying LeanSpa, a supplement whose marketers allegedly made deceptive weight-loss claims. The FTC and the State of Connecticut sued the marketers of LeanSpa in December 2011, charging that they used fake websites to promote acai berry and “colon cleanse” weight-loss products, and falsely told consumers they could receive free trials by paying a nominal shipping and handling cost. In reality, consumers ended up paying $79.95 for the trial, and for recurring monthly shipments of the product that were hard to cancel. FTC