Foreign Exchange

October 24, 2014

The CFTC has obtained a federal court order of default judgment against defendant Financial Robotics, Inc., a Texas corporation, for its participation in a fraudulent Forex scheme, requiring the defendant to pay restitution of $827,000 and a penalty of almost $2.5 million.  CFTC

August 11, 2014

The CFTC entered an Order requiring Jacob N. Stein, individually and doing business as TEPdesign, Inc., to pay restitution of $244,400 to defrauded customers and a $100,000 civil monetary penalty, for committing fraud and misappropriation in connection with a commodity pool that traded leveraged or margined off-exchange foreign currency contracts (forex).  CFTC

July 18, 2014

The CFTC filed an amended Complaint against Missouri resident Daniel K. Steele and his firm Champion Management International charging them with misappropriation, issuance of false account statements, and other acts of fraudulent solicitation and concealment relating to their solicitation of investments in foreign currency (forex) pools.  The amended Complaint follows a CFTC complaint against them filed in September 2013.  The amended Complaint further alleges that Steele knowingly made material misrepresentations to actual and prospective pool participants concerning Defendants’ forex trading and trading results.  The amended Complaint also alleges that Steele concealed trading losses, misappropriated approximately $1 million of pool participants’ funds for personal use, and issued false account statements to pool participants reflecting that they were earning profits when instead Steele was misappropriating the majority of their funds, all in violation of Section 4b of the Commodities Exchange Act.  CFTC

May 19, 2014

The CFTC issued an Order filing and simultaneously settling charges that Global Futures & Forex, Ltd., a CFTC-registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) and former Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED) headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, failed to comply with minimum financial requirements for FCMs and RFEDs. The CFTC Order imposes a $200,000 civil penalty and a cease and desist order against GFF for its violations.  CFTC

May 2, 2014

The CFTC obtained a restraining order freezing assets and prohibiting the destruction or concealment of books and records of EJS Capital Management, Alex Vladimir Ekdeshman and Edward J. Servider.  The order arises out of a Complaint the CFTC filed charging them with fraudulent solicitation of more than $2M, misappropriation of most of those funds, issuing false account statements, and registration violations in an ongoing retail foreign currency (forex) fraud scheme.  CFTC

April 25, 2014

The CFTC obtained a Consent Order of Permanent Injunction that bars Australian firm Halifax Investment Services, Ltd. from soliciting orders to trade foreign currency (forex) from US residents who do not qualify as eligible contract participants (ECPs) and from offering to be the counterparty to US residents’ forex transactions without registering with the CFTC.  The Order settles CFTC charges that Halifax unlawfully solicited members of the public to engage in forex transactions and operated as a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED) without being registered with the CFTC.  CFTC