Regulatory Violations

January 30, 2015

Maxim Chukharev, former information technology manager for Liberty Reserve, a company that operated one of the world’s most widely used digital currency services, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. According to the government, Liberty Reserve billed itself as the Internet’s “largest payment processor and money transfer system” but instead was created, structured and operated to help users conduct illegal transactions anonymously and launder the proceeds of their crimes. According to court records, before being shut down by the government in May 2013, Liberty Reserve conducted approximately 55 million transactions through its system totaling more than $6B in funds which encompassed suspected proceeds of credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, narcotics trafficking and other crimes.DOJ

January 20, 2016

The CFTC announced that it filed a civil enforcement action charging Kevin J. Davis of Ponca City, Oklahoma with acting as an unregistered commodity pool operator, failing to operate his commodity pool as a separate legal entity, accepting funds from pool participants in his own name, and commingling pool participants’ funds with his own.  CFTC

January 13, 2016

Otkritie Capital International, Ltd., a London-based financial services company, agreed to pay a $140,000 penalty to settle charges that it violated CFTC Regulation 30.4 by permitting two of its U.S. customers to trade futures and options in foreign markets while not registered as a futures commission merchant.  CFTC

January 7, 2016

The CFTC filed a complaint against Ghassan Tawachi (a/k/a Marco Tawachi) and his firm, Intelligent Trades, LLC, alleging the defendants fraudulently marketed commodity futures trading software, under which Tawachi indirectly controlled the trading of his customers’ commodity futures accounts and collected substantial fees for the use of his trading software. In all, the defendants allegedly defrauded clients of over $479,755.  CFTC

December 4, 2015

The CFTC has filed a civil enforcement action charging David Bryant of Los Angeles County with fraud and acting as a Commodity Pool Operator without being registered with the CFTC; the CFTC’s complaint alleges that between at June 2014 and the present, Bryant fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $3 million from pool participants, claiming he was trading their funds in an account for the Bryant Family Investment Fund LLC. According to the CFTC’s complaint, there was no Bryant Family Investment Fund LLC account, and Bryant actually lost over $2.6 million trading in his personal accounts during this period. CFTC

November 18, 2015

Sentry Asset Group, LLC d/b/a Sentry Asset Management, LLC of Boca Raton, Florida, and its owner, manager, and controlling person John Pakel of Boynton Beach, Florida have been ordered to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty and restitution of $278,767 for engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions. CFTC

November 16, 2015

The CFTC has filed a lawsuit against IB Capital FX, LLC (a/k/a IB Capital FX [NZ] LLP) d/b/a IB Capital, Michel Geurkink, and Emad Echadi, alleging that the defendant solicited and accepted at least $50 million from 960 clients, including almost 700 in the United States, for off-exchange margined retail foreign currency (forex) trading without being registered with the CFTC.  CFTC

September 30, 2015

The CFTC filed charges against Guardian Asset Group, LLC and its owner and principal, Andrew Kurzbard, both of West Palm Beach, Florida, alleging that the defendants engaged in illegal, off-exchange transactions in precious metals with retail customers on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis.  CFTC

September 29 ,2015

American Portfolio Asset Management, Inc. and its owner, Alan M. Kneller, both of Boca Raton, Florida, will pay over $578,000 in restitution and penalties to settle charges that they illegally offering off-exchange financed transactions in precious metals to retail customers.  CFTC

September 29, 2015

The CFTC have filed a lawsuit against Harvard Assets LLC, London Assets Inc., and Harvard International Trading, Inc., all three operating in Florida, and their controlling person, Todd Owen Marshall for engaging in illegal, off-exchange transactions in precious metals with retail customers.  CFTC