US Legal & Regulation

A federal court in Oklahoma City has entered a restraining order against defendants Kenneth W. Lee, Simon Yang, Prestige Ventures and Federated Management Group freezing assets controlled by the defendants, protecting records and appointing a temporary receiver to locate and marshal assets for return to defrauded customers. »

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has obtained a default judgment order requiring Robert J. Sucarato to pay USD800,000 in restitution and a USD1.2m civil monetary penalty for fraudulently soliciting commodity pool participants to trade futures and options through his hedge funds and for concealing trading losses. »

A court order has frozen assets held by Minnesota residents Trevor G. Cook and Patrick Kiley, and their companies Oxford Global Advisors, Oxford Global Partners, Universal Brokerage FX and Universal Brokerage FX Diversified, all charged with fraud and misappropriation in connection with off-exchange leveraged foreign currency trading. »

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has obtained a court order freezing the assets of William Charles Guidry of Jacksonville, Florida, Matthew Brian Pizzolato of Tickfaw, Louisiana, and Capital Funding Consultants of Covington, Louisiana. »

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission have issued two joint orders related to security-based futures contracts that clarify each commission’s respective jurisdiction and allow additional products to underlie security futures. »

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has settled charges against EMF Financial Products, a CFTC registrant based in New York, for making false statements and failing to disclose material information concerning its market positions and financing to the Chicago Board of Trade. »

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has obtained a consent order against Michael Kourmolis of Brooklyn, New York, permanently prohibiting him from engaging in any activity related to trading any commodity interests, including soliciting funds, registering with the CFTC and trading on behalf of others or himself. »

A federal court has entered an order freezing assets held by defendant David A. Owen, of Destin, Florida following a Commodity Futures Trading Commission anti-fraud enforcement action filed on 30 October 2009. »

A federal court has entered default judgment orders against defendants Robin States and his wife Bernadette Bowden, both of Nova Scotia, Canada, and relief defendant Paul States, of British Columbia, Canada, in an action charging them with fraudulent solicitation and misappropriation in the operation of commodity pool known as Infinity Online Investors Group. »

Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has made charges against 14 Wall Street professionals and attorneys arising out of their ongoing investigation of insider trading at hedge funds and stock trading firms. »