CFTC

BULLETIN: Five days after Ponzi swindler Trevor Cook pleaded guilty to defrauding victims in an elaborate international scam that reduced investors to ruin, a Minneapolis man hid proceeds from the caper from law enforcement and the court-appointed receiver, federal prosecutors said. Victims of the Cook scheme — many of whom were people of faith — […]

Gary and Brenda Martin of St. Augustine, Fla., posed as Forex dealers and experts, operated a website advertising their purported expertise, bragged about the talents of their unqualified sales “consultants” — and collected more than $22 million in an incredibly elaborate fraud scheme, the CFTC has charged. Neither of the Martins was registered with the […]

The World Bank confirmed to the PP Blog this morning that a person named Andrea Lucas left its employment in December 1986, nearly 25 years ago. But Lucas was never a member of the World Bank’s board of directors, as many members of business “opportunity” known as Club Asteria have implied in online, MLM-style promotions […]

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 […]

BULLETIN: A Canadian man was running a Forex scheme in the United States that touted its incorporation in Belize, the CFTC said. The scheme was operating from Wisconsin Dells, Wisc., and had at least six corporate bank accounts and two PayPal accounts into which customers sent money, the CFTC said. Named defendants in a case […]

Federal judges in California, New York, Tennessee and Arizona last week ordered spectacular financial penalties against Forex and commodities fraudsters. Dennis R. Bolze was assessed a penalty of more than $36.6 million and ordered to pay restitution of more than $13 million to investors he scammed. The orders were entered by Chief U.S. District Judge […]

A Florida man who operated a website known as “Forex Futures Trader” to drive business to his Ponzi scheme has been sued for fraud in an emergency action, the CFTC said. Some of the cash was routed through a firm that continued to do business despite the fact it was dissolved by the state in […]

A Texas man with federal convictions two decades ago in Utah on charges of securities fraud, mail fraud, making false statements and conspiracy started a Forex Ponzi scheme in 2008 and stole at least $750,000 from investors, according to a CFTC complaint originally filed under seal earlier this month. U.S. District Judge Richard Schell of […]

UPDATED 2:50 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A 77-year old Amish man in Sugarcreek, Ohio, ran a fraud scheme that gathered at least $33 million and affected 2,600 investors in 29 states, the SEC has alleged. Monroe L. Beachy’s long-running scheme mostly targeted fellow Amish, the agency charged. The scheme, which operated under the name of A&M Investments […]

And people actually are questioning President Obama’s November 2009 decision to create the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force when things such as this are going on? An unregistered North Carolina company that churned tens of millions of dollars in a long-running shell game and described itself as a Forex dealer was operated by a […]

BULLETIN: A federal judge has frozen the assets of a trader and television analyst charged criminally by a New York County grand jury with multiple felonies in an alleged commodity-pool Ponzi scheme and charged civilly by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the same caper. Brian Kim, 35, is a “fugitive,” declared Manhattan District […]