The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has obtained an emergency federal court order freezing the assets of defendants Beau Diamond and his company, Diamond Ventures, both of Saras
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has obtained an emergency federal court order freezing the assets of defendants Beau Diamond and his company, Diamond Ventures, both of Sarasota, Florida.
The court’s order also prohibits the destruction of documents and grants the CFTC immediate access to defendants’ documents.
The order, entered on 3 September 2009 in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida, arises from a CFTC enforcement action filed that day charging Diamond and Diamond Ventures with operating a USD37m foreign currency Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 200 investors.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that, from at least April 2006 to the present the defendants falsely guaranteed investors the return of their principal plus monthly returns ranging from 2.75 per cent to five per cent purportedly paid from defendants’ successful forex trading. In reality, the defendants lost USD13.3m trading investors’ funds, according to the CFTC. To conceal and perpetuate their alleged fraud, the defendants provided investors with false account statements showing that their accounts were increasing as promised although the accounts actually were losing money.
The CFTC also alleges that the defendants misappropriated at least USD850,000 of customer funds and used the money for luxury purchases and gambling.
In the continuing litigation, the CFTC is seeking repayment of investor losses, repayment of funds received by the defendants, civil monetary penalties and permanent injunctions prohibiting the defendants from violating federal commodity laws and from engaging in further trading.
