The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has charged Stuart W.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has charged Stuart W. Jones, Payton Lowe, and WeCorp, all of Hilo and Honolulu, Hawaii, with soliciting approximately USD1.5m from more than 20 people.
The CFTC’s lawsuit, filed under seal on 9 April 2009 in the US District Court for the District of Hawaii, charges that since June 2008, Jones, Lowe, and WeCorp claimed to be experienced forex traders and promised to trade customer funds using an automated forex trading system that purportedly guaranteed monthly 100 per cent returns with no risk of loss.
In reality, the lawsuit alleges, Jones, Lowe, and WeCorp had no automated trading system, virtually no experience in trading forex, and lost money trading, and stole investor funds for personal gain.
The lawsuit further alleges that Jones, Lowe, and WeCorp provided investors with false statements showing consistent monthly profits when, in fact, nearly all customer funds had either been stolen by the three defendants or lost in forex trading.
In addition, Gary V. Dubin, of Honolulu, Gary Duck, of Vista, California, and Nathan P. Ramos, of Hilo are named in the complaint as relief defendants because they received funds as a result of defendants’ fraudulent conduct and have no legitimate entitlement to those funds.
US district court judge Philip Pro has frozen the assets of Jones, Lowe, and WeCorp and permitted the CFTC to seize all relevant records in their possession.
In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks restitution, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, rescission, civil monetary penalties, and permanent injunctions against further violations of the federal commodities laws and against further trading.
