The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has charged Jeffrey Gustaveson of Carlsbad, California with fraud, misappropriation, and issuing false statements in a USD2.5m commodity pool scheme.

According to the CFTC complaint, filed on 29 August 2012, from at least January 2010 through approximately July 2010, Gustaveson accepted at least USD2,495,000 from at least four individuals to invest in a commodity futures pool.

However, rather than trade pool participants’ funds as promised, Gustaveson allegedly only used approximately USD400,000 of the funds to trade commodity futures, which resulted in a net loss.

Gustaveson kept the remaining funds in a checking account from which he used at least USD400,000 of pool funds to pay his personal expenses, including hotels, restaurants, and online gambling, according to the complaint.

Furthermore, to conceal his fraud, Gustaveson allegedly distributed false trading account statements to pool participants that misrepresented the value of the pool, reported false profits, and failed to disclose Gustaveson’s misappropriation of pool participants’ funds.

When his fraud was exposed, Gustaveson allegedly repaid a portion of pool participants’ funds, but, despite repeated requests to do so, Gustaveson allegedly has not returned USD415,000 of pool participants’ money.

According to the CFTC complaint, Gustaveson admitted in a California state court proceeding that he had misappropriated investor money and falsified financial statements in connection with the acts described in the CFTC complaint.

In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks restitution to defrauded customers, a return of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions against further violations of federal commodities laws, as charged.