Archive

July 18, 2017

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that a federal district court has unsealed a civil CFTC Complaint with the Middle District of Florida on July 10, 2017, charging Jason B. Scharf of Valley Village, California, a worldwide web of companies he controlled, including CIT Investments LLC, a Nevada limited liability corporation; Brevspand EOOD, a Bulgarian business entity; CIT Investments Ltd., a Marshall Islands business entity; CIT Investments Ltd., an Anguillan business entity; and A & J Media Partners, Inc., a California corporation, together with affiliate marketers Michael Shah and his company Zilmil, Inc., both of Jacksonville, Florida, with unlawfully soliciting and accepting more than $16 million in connection with illegal binary options contracts. Scharf also does business as Citrades.com and AutoTrading Binary.com, according to the Complaint. In addition, the Complaint charges Scharf, Shah, and Zilmil with acting as Futures Commission Merchants (FCM) and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA) without being registered with the CFTC, as required. CFTC

July 11, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that Judge Susan C. Bucklew of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered an Order of Final Judgment by Default against Defendants Anthony J. Klatch II, Lindsey Heim, and their company Assurance Capital Management, LLC (ACM) for defrauding pool participants in a commodity pool they operated, misappropriating pool participants’ funds, and other violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations. The Order requires that Klatch, Lindsey Heim, and ACM jointly pay $459,613 in restitution and a $1,509,552 civil monetary penalty. The Order also requires that Klatch pay an additional $96,873 in restitution and a $335,456 civil monetary penalty for two additional fraudulent schemes he carried out. CFTC

July 11, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against Defendants Daniel Winston LaMarco and his company, GDLogix Inc., charging them with off-exchange foreign currency derivatives (forex) fraud, commodity pool fraud, and failure to register with the CFTC, as required. LaMarco previously resided in Huntington, New York, and GDLogix’s last known principal place of business was in Huntington, New York. Neither Defendant has ever been registered with the CFTC. CFTC

June 27, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an Order filing and settling charges against Huafu HK Co. Ltd. (Huafu), a corporation based in Hong Kong, for failing to file CFTC Form 304 reports, reporting its call cotton purchases and sales when it held or controlled at least 100 cotton futures positions. The CFTC previously issued a market Advisory reminding cotton market participants wherever they are located of their ongoing obligation to comply in a timely manner with applicable reporting obligations (see CFTC Staff Advisory No. 13-14, Obligation of Reportable Market Participants to File CFTC Form 304 Reports for Call Cotton in a Timely Manner as Required by Commission Regulation 19.02, May 8, 2013). The CFTC Order requires Huafu to pay a $225,000 civil monetary penalty and prohibits it from committing future violations of CFTC Regulation 19.02, as charged. CFTC

June 13, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that Judge Jose E. Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered a Consent Order against North American Asset Management, LLC (NAAM) of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, its owner and president Alexi Bethel of Miami, Florida, and its owner and managing director Steven Labadie of Lake Worth, Florida. The Order finds that NAAM, Bethel, and Labadie engaged in illegal, off-exchange transactions in precious metals with retail customers on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis and requires them, jointly and severally, to pay restitution of $648,759.60 and a $977,430.47 civil monetary penalty. The Order also imposes permanent trading and registration bans against NAAM, Bethel, and Labadie and prohibits them from further violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), as charged. The Order stems from a CFTC civil enforcement action filed against NAAM, Bethel, and Labadie on January 15, 2016, charging them with engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions (see CFTC Complaint and Press Release 7331-16). CFTC

May 30, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered a final Order of Default Judgment (Order) against Defendants Kelvin Burgos and his company K.B. Concepts Group, LLC d/b/a Apex Asset Advisors, LLC (K.B. Concepts) for engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions. Burgos, a resident of Florida, was the owner and principal of K.B. Concepts, which operated its metals business under the name Apex Asset Advisors, LLC. The Court’s Order stems from a CFTC civil enforcement action filed against the Defendants on September 20, 2016 (see CFTC Complaint and Press Release 7448-16). The Court’s Order requires Burgos and K.B. Concepts to pay, jointly and severally, $121,591.10 in disgorgement and a $364,773.30 civil monetary penalty. The Order also imposes permanent trading, solicitation, and registration bans against Burgos and K.B. Concepts, and prohibits them from engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions, as charged. CFTC

May 22, 2017

Los Angeles-based Citigroup subsidiary Banamex USA agreed to forfeit $97.44 million to resolve an investigation into BUSA’s Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) violations.  In its agreement, BUSA admitted to criminal violations by willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering compliance program to guard against money laundering and willfully failing to file Suspicious Activity Reports. DOJ

May 23, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Judge Kenneth A. Marra of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered a Consent Order against Guardian Asset Group, LLC (Guardian) of West Palm Beach, Florida, and its owner and principal, Andrew Kurzbard, with a last-known address in Hacksneck, Virginia, finding that Guardian and Kurzbard engaged in illegal, off-exchange transactions in precious metals with retail customers on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis. The Order requires Guardian and Kurzbard, jointly and severally, to pay restitution of $434,413.54 and a $651,620.31 civil monetary penalty. The Order also imposes permanent trading and registration bans against Guardian and Kurzbard and prohibits them from further violating the Commodity Exchange Act, as charged. The Order stems from a CFTC civil enforcement action filed against Guardian and Kurzbard on September 30, 2015, charging them with engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions (see CFTC Complaint and Press Release 7257-15). CFTC

May 11, 2017

Public companies must properly disclose perks, benefits, and other forms of compensation paid to CEOs and certain other highly compensated executive officers.  The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Miles S. Nadal the former CEO of a marketing company has agreed to pay $5.5 million to settle charges that his perks were not properly disclosed to shareholders. According to the SEC’s order, shareholders were informed in annual filings that Nadal received an annual perquisite allowance of $500,000 in addition to other benefits as the chairman and CEO of MDC Partners.  But the SEC’s investigation found that without disclosing information to investors as required, MDC Partners paid for Nadal’s personal use of private airplanes as well as charitable donations in his name, yacht and sports car expenses, cosmetic surgery, and a wide range of other perks.  All total, Nadal improperly obtained an additional $11.285 million in perks beyond his disclosed benefits and $500,000 annual allowances.  He has since resigned and returned $11.285 million to the company. SEC

May 9, 2017

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged David R. Humphrey, a former SEC employee, with securities fraud in connection with his trading of options and other securities. The SEC’s complaint alleges that David R. Humphrey, who worked at the SEC from 1998 to 2014, concealed his personal trading from the SEC’s ethics office and later misrepresented his trading activities to the SEC’s Office of Inspector General when questioned during an investigation.  “As alleged in our complaint, Humphrey never sought pre-clearance for his prohibited options trades and he filed forms that falsely represented his securities holdings,” said Gerald W. Hodgkins, Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.  SEC employees are subject to rigorous rules regarding securities transactions to guard against even the appearance of using public office for private gain.  The ethics rules specifically prohibit trading in options or derivatives.  The rules also require staff to disclose their securities holdings and transactions to the agency’s ethics office in annual filings. According to the SEC’s complaint, Humphrey violated the rules by engaging in transactions involving derivatives, failing to obtain pre-clearance before trading non-prohibited securities, and failing to hold securities for the required period. SEC