The CFTC announced that it charged Ruben Gonzalez , Jose C. Naranjo, and their company, New Golden Investment Group, LLC (NGI) of West Covina, with fraud and misappropriation in connection with a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

The CFTC also announced that it obtained an emergency order from Judge Percy Anderson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, on May 20, 2010, the same day the complaint was filed. The order freezes the defendants’ assets and prohibits defendants from destroying documents or denying CFTC access to their books and records.

The CFTC’s complaint alleges that since at least August 2008, Gonzalez, Naranjo and NGI fraudulently solicited and accepted approximately $3.65 million from at least 165 members of the Los Angeles-area Spanish speaking community for various investments, including commodity futures trading. The defendants falsely claimed to customers that they would double their money within a year in oil, gold, silver and other commodities.

Gonzalez was previously arrested in California on illegal immigration charges and is currently incarcerated. Gonzalez was indicted on May 20, 2010, for mail and wire fraud.

The CFTC’s complaint seeks orders requiring the defendants to provide the CFTC with continuing access to books and records and to make an accounting with information necessary to determine the amounts received from and paid to NGI investors. The CFTC also requests that the court issue orders of preliminary and permanent injunction against the defendants and order a return of alleged ill-gotten gains, repayments to defrauded customers and monetary penalties.