The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has obtained two federal court consent orders of permanent injunction against Ronald E Satterfield and Nicholas and Patricia Bos.
One order requires defendant Ronald E Satterfield, of Charleston, SC, to pay USD957,146 of restitution and a USD2,871,438 civil monetary penalty, and the other requires defendant Nicholas Bos (Bos) of Ludington, Michigan, to pay USD849,146 of restitution and a USD2,547,438 civil monetary penalty, for operating a foreign currency (forex) Ponzi scheme.
The Bos order also requires Patricia Bos (P. Bos), a relief defendant and Bos’ wife, to disgorge USD295,000 in ill-gotten gains. The orders also impose permanent trading and registration bans against Satterfield and Bos.
The consent orders, entered by Judge Richard M. Gergel, of the US District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, arise from a CFTC complaint filed on 8 November, 2010, that charged the defendants with operating a forex Ponzi scheme involving the fraudulent solicitation of at least USD3.3 million from at least 70 individuals – residing in South Carolina, North Carolina, Michigan, and Maryland – to engage in leveraged or margined forex transactions (see CFTC Press Release 5935-10, 15 November, 2010).
The Satterfield order, entered on 9 May, 2012, finds that Satterfield fraudulently solicited customers by representing that his forex trading was profitable and that customers could receive monthly returns ranging from two to four percent. The order also finds that Satterfield issued false account statements reflecting the promised returns when, in fact, a large amount of customer deposits were used to pay purported returns to other customers, rather than to trade forex. The forex trading Satterfield actually did, according to the order, resulted in losses in almost every month.
The Bos order, entered on 25 April, 2012, finds that Bos fraudulently solicited customers to trade forex through accounts managed by Satterfield. The order also finds that Bos falsely represented to customers that there would be no risk to their deposits and failed to disclose that he was collecting commissions and fees paid from customer funds and that he misappropriated USD295,000 in customer funds to purchase a house in Ludington, Mich., titled in his name and in that of his wife.
Earlier, on 14 June, 2011, the CFTC obtained a default judgment order from Judge Gergel against the corporate defendants in this action: Graham Street Forex Group, LLC and Shore-2-Summit Financial, LLC. The default order requires the corporate defendants jointly and severally to pay over USD5.6 million in equitable relief and a monetary sanction and imposes permanent trading and registration bans against them.
