Government Enforcement Actions

September 28, 2015

The CFTC ordered Michael E. Simmons and Global Consortiums, LLC, both of Fayetteville, Georgia, to pay a $360,000 penalty and restitution totaling $229,660 for committing fraud and misappropriation in connection with operating a commodity pool that offered leveraged or margined off-exchange foreign currency transactions.  CFTC

September 25, 2015

Chicago-based Futures International LLC and its Chief Operating Officer Amedeo Cerrone of St. Charles, Illinois, have agreed to pay $500,000 to settle charges of failing to adequately record customer orders; failing to maintain required records relating to commodity futures transactions; submitting order tickets bearing false timestamps; unauthorized trading; and failing to provide adequate supervision.  CFTC

September 25, 2015

The CFTC has charged Safety Capital Management, Inc. and GNS Capital, Inc., both doing business as FOREXNPOWER, John Won, and Sungmi Kang with fraudulent solicitation of over $1.5 million from customers to trade off-exchange foreign currency and misappropriation of over $622,000 of customer funds.  CFTC

September 24, 2015

Russian citizen, Yakov Shlyapochnik, and his Connecticut-based company, Nord Capital Advisors, LLC (NCA) have been ordered to pay a $280,000 penalty for failing to disclose NCA’s principal in registration filings and for engaging in fraud in soliciting prospective clients by failing to disclose material changes in NCA’s algorithmic trading program.  CFTC

September 24, 2015

The CFTC ordered commodities trading company Cargill de México SA De CV to pay a $500,000 penalty for executing wash trades involving corn, soybean, and wheat futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade and wheat futures contracts on the Kansas City Board of Trade.  CFTC

September 24, 2015

The CFTC settled charges against TeraExchange LLC for failing to enforce its prohibition on wash trading and prearranged trading.  CFTC

September 23, 2015

The Florida Attorney General announced a $3.5 million settlement with Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corporation and Adventist Health System/Sunbelt, Inc. to resolve two suits brought by whistleblowers alleging that Adventist maintained improper financial relationships with physicians and submitted claims to Florida Medicaid for services and items the physicians referred. The settlement resolves claims that Adventist submitted false Medicaid claims and awarded referring doctors based on the number of tests and procedures the doctors ordered. Adventist also entered into separate civil settlements with the federal government, North Carolina and Texas, agreeing to pay more than $115 million. FL.

September 17, 2015

The CFTC ordered Robert M. McMahon of Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania, to pay a $171,000 penalty for engaging in a deceptive trading scheme involving Henry Hub Natural Gas Futures contracts, in which he would defraud his customers by taking the other sides of his customers trades and allocating to them the worse-priced contracts.  CFTC

September 17, 2015

The CFTC filed a complaint against Mintco LLC of Delray Beach, Florida, and its principals Stuart Rubin and Richard Q. Zimmerman, charging the defendants with unlawfully targeting low net-worth retail customers with telemarketing and off-exchange transactions for the purchase and sale of gold and other precious metals.  CFTC

September 17, 2015

The CFTC ordered Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., an Australia-based financial services company, to pay a $150,000 penalty for failing to comply with its obligation to submit accurate large trader reports for physical commodity swap positions.  CFTC