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Tag: Anthony Eugene Linton

  • Report By Small-Town Newspaper In Colorado Leads To Forex Ponzi Scheme Arrest In Chicago; FBI Nabs Mark Akins After Durango Herald Readers Provide Tips

    A fugitive suspected of helping organize a Forex Ponzi scheme that traded on a claim that a special “algorithm” led to hefty profits has been arrested in Chicago after a small-town Colorado newspaper 1,350 miles away reported he was wanted.

    The Durango Herald, which has a circulation of 9,400 and has received awards from the Associated Press, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Colorado Press Association over the years, reported earlier this month that Mark Akins was wanted for a scheme that allegedly had operated in Durango.

    Akins was accused of being the “gatekeeper” for the scheme, which netted at least $1.2 million and affected 70 investors.

    Also charged in the case was Frederick H.K. Baker of Utah. Baker already has made an initial court appearance in Utah. Akins is scheduled to make an appearance in Illinois next week, the Herald reported.

    After reading the Herald report that Akins was wanted, a woman contacted the newspaper to say she believed Akins was living in Chicago. The newspaper referred her to law enforcement.

    A reader in Chicago, meanwhile, said he contacted the FBI after reading the story, the Herald reported.

    The reader then emailed the paper to report that Akins had been arrested in the Windy City.

    “We saw your article and notified the FBI and he was arrested on Thursday night,” the reader told the newspaper.

    Read the Herald’s first story.

    Read the Herald’s follow-up story about the arrest of Akins.

    Claims of miraculous trading algorithms and fool-proof software are common in the universe of Forex hucksters.

    Robert Mihailovich Sr., a convicted felon, was charged by the CFTC last year with presiding over a Forex fraud that purportedly used a “mass sub-algorithm.” Mihailovich allegedly started the new scam after his release from prison in 2007.

    Enrique F. Villalba was charged last year with presiding over a futures fraud that allegedly used a unique “momentum filter.”

    Earlier this month, Jacob Juma Omukwe was charged in a Forex caper in which it was alleged he used software to trick customers into believing their money was segregated for safety.

    Anthony Eugene Linton was charged in January in a case that alleged he told customers that his miraculous software system let them “profit every time.”

  • Federal Judge Grants Asset Freeze In Bizarre Fraud Case That Allegedly Mixed A Forex Ponzi Scheme With A Cash-Gifing And Tax Scheme; Arizona Resident Anthony Eugene Linton Promised Software System Let Customers ‘Profit Every Time’, CFTC Charges

    The assets of an Arizona man who allegedly mixed a Forex Ponzi scheme with a cash-gifting scheme and claimed his software system let clients “profit every time” from trades have been frozen by a federal judge after the CFTC filed an emergency court action.

    Anthony Eugene Linton of Tucson told investors that entrusting their money to him posed “no risk whatsoever” because of his miraculous trading abilities, personal wealth and software system, the CFTC charged.

    Some customers were told their profits under Linton were not taxable because the enterprise was structured as a “tax free gift plan in which participation interests would be considered to be gifts” to Linton’s company, known as “The Private Trading Pool” (PTP).

    Returns from PTP were positioned as “gifts” back to participants, “with the result that the transactions would not have to be disclosed to the Internal Revenue Service . . . and would be considered ‘tax free’ by the IRS,” CFTC charged.

    Linton told one whopper after another, CFTC said.

    “[W]hat little forex trading Linton did using customer funds resulted in consistent net losses, and, in the aggregate, he lost more than 90 percent of the funds traded,” CFTC charged.

    When the scheme began to unravel, CFTC charged, Linton blamed purported “new restrictions” on Forex trading imposed by the U.S. Congress and the National Futures Association (NFA) for his inability to make payments, CFTC charged.

    He also told some investors that a “Permanent Injunction” placed against him in his divorce case prevented him from making payments, CFTC charged.

    The alleged scheme gathered at least $650,000 from at least 19 investors. Some of the funds were used in Ponzi scheme fashion, CFTC said.

    Linton also used customer funds to make his “personal mortgage, car and credit card payments,” CFTC charged.

    At the same time, he used customer funds “to buy and sell items on Ebay and converted large sums of customer funds into cash and stashed it in a safe in his home,” CFTC said.

    U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ordered the asset freeze.