A Federal court judge in Los Angeles has continued an asset freeze against Gordon A.
A Federal court judge in Los Angeles has continued an asset freeze against Gordon A. Driver of Las Vegas and his companies, Axcess Automation and Axcess Fund Management, all charged in an anti-fraud action with operating a USD13.5m Ponzi scheme.
The scheme allegedly defrauded more than 100 participants in the US and Canada, with many participants residing in Los Angeles County and in Ontario Province.
The preliminary injunction order, entered on 17 August 2009, by Judge Otis D. Wright II of the US District Court, Central District of California, continues the court’s asset freeze against the defendants entered on 14 May 2009, when the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged them with defrauding commodity pool participants.
The court order requires defendants to provide to the CFTC an accounting of their assets and prohibits them from engaging in any commodity-related trading, among other relief.
The order arises from a CFTC complaint that charges defendants with operating two commodity pools as a Ponzi scheme, misappropriating pool participant funds and issuing false statements to participants. Defendants allegedly accepted more than USD13.5m from participants and traded only about USD3.7m of this amount, losing approximately USD3.5m. Driver allegedly misappropriated pool funds for his personal expenses, including cash withdrawals at Las Vegas casinos.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a related civil action against Driver and Axcess Automation on 14 May 2009. On 15 April, the Ontario Securities Commission filed a cease trading order against Driver, temporarily prohibiting him from trading any securities within Ontario Province.
In the continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks a permanent injunction order, civil monetary penalties and other equitable relief against the defendants.
