Fraud in CFTC-Regulated Markets

May 9, 2016

The CFTC ordered Cunningham Commodities, LLC, based in Chicago, Illinois, and its head accountant, Salvatore Carmen Russo, to pay a penalty of $150,000 for failing to immediately report a customer's segregated account deficiency.  CFTC

April 5, 2016

A federal court has ordered UAE residents Heet Khara and Nasim Salim to pay $2.69 million in civil penalties for spoofing in the gold and silver futures markets.  CFTC

March 31, 2016

The CFTC filed a civil enforcement action against Hendrik A. Van Beuningen of Brookhaven, Georgia, and his company, DeBrink Trading Fund I, LLC of Atlanta, Georgia, alleging fraud, misappropriation, and issuing false statements in connection with a commodity pool they operated.  CFTC

March 9, 2016

Cyprus-based company Banc de Binary Ltd., its founder Oren Shabat Laurent, and three affiliates, will pay $11 million to settle charges of illegally selling binary options to U.S. investors.  The SEC’s 2013 complaint alleged that the defendants failed to register the offering before soliciting U.S. customers and failed to register as a broker-dealer before communicating directly with U.S. clients.  Binary options differ from more conventional options contracts because the payout typically depends entirely on whether the price of a particular asset underlying the option will rise above or fall below a specified amount.  The defendants will pay about $9 million to the SEC and $2 million to the CFTC which filed a parallel action.  A fair fund has been established to distribute money to the harmed investors.  SEC  

March 25, 2016

The CFTC has filed charges against Virginia resident Tracy Lee Thomas and his firm based in the Cayman Islands Marbury Advisors Inc. with allegations of fraudulently soliciting more than $1.2 million in a commodity futures scheme.  CFTC

March 23, 2016

JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp. and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.  have agreed to pay a $225,000 penalty to resolve charges of failing to comply with their obligations to submit accurate large trader reports for physical commodity swap positions.  CFTC

March 22, 2016

A federal judge for the Southern District of Iowa ordered Alabama resident John David Stroud and his companies to pay over $4.7 million in restitution and penalties for committing commodity pool fraud and misappropriation of funds.  CFTC

March 22, 2016

The CFTC has ordered payment of penalties of $665,000 by Credit Suisse International for violating speculative position limits for wheat futures and by Credit Suisse Securities LLC for submitting false or misleading information to the CFTC.  CFTC

March 15, 2016

The CFTC announced that a federal district court has unsealed a civil complaint the CFTC filed with the Northern District of Illinois on February 2, 2016, against two foreign web-based binary options firms, Vault Options, Ltd. and Global Trader 365, both Israeli web-based companies. The CFTC’s complaint alleges that the two firms unlawfully solicited and accepted more than $1 million from at least 50 U.S. customers to trade off-exchange binary options contracts, defrauded those customers, and operated as unregistered Futures Commission Merchants.  CFTC