July 20, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today the settling of charges against Respondents Arthur Toole IIIof Atlanta, Georgia, and his companies, Billionaire Investor Group (BIG), a Texas limited liability company, The Toole Group Inc. (Toole Group), a Texas corporation, and Catalyst Traders LLC (Catalyst), a Georgia limited liability company, for misappropriating commodity pool funds, fraudulent misrepresentations, commingling pool funds, and acting as an unregistered commodity pool operator. The CFTC Order finds that from in or about February 2011 through at least January 2016, Toole incorporated his companies in Texas and Georgia, all of which operated as separate, consecutive commodity pools and which primarily traded Chicago Mercantile Exchange Euro FX futures and E-Mini Dow futures contracts. The Order further finds that Toole solicited over $375,000 from pool participants for the three commodity pools and misappropriated over $244,000 from the pools for personal and non-trading expenses. Pool participants suffered net losses amounting to $293,141, according to the Order. The Order also finds that Toole misrepresented trading results and the pools’ assets under management and commingled funds from all three pools with non-pool property. CFTC

Tagged in: Fraud in CFTC-Regulated Markets, Misrepresentations, Regulatory Violations,