The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has secured more than $12 million in restitution and civil monetary penalties against nine Florida defendants in settlement of an anti-fraud lawsuit related to the marketing of illegal off-exchange FX options.
The court has ordered the defendants to pay just over $7 million in restitution to defrauded investors. In addition, the court imposed civil monetary penalties and permanently barred Forefront Investments and the two Addison firms from engaging in any commodity-related activity. It also barred Benji Dayan, Todd Guthrie, and Alan Lerner from engaging in any commodity trading on behalf of others on any exchange or soliciting or accepting any funds from others for any on-exchange commodity trading.
It was found that from at least February 2005 until June 2006, the Addison companies fraudulently solicited retail customers to trade FX options with Forefront Investments as the counterparty. Customers lost more than $7 million of about $7.6 million they had invested. The Addison companies generated commissions of about $3.3 million.
Published in the weeklyFiX 12 Dec 2008