The CFTC has charged registered Commodity Trading Advisor (“CTA”) Pro Trading Course, LLC and the firm’s principal and floor broker Richard Regan with fraudulently soliciting the public to take their commodity futures trading course.
According to the CFTC, the defendants offered a training program, purportedly to teach its students to work as proprietary traders. Regan solicited the public through advertisements on Criagslist and other websites. Respondents were given promotional material that overstated the employment opportunities and profit potential afforded by Pro Trading Course. The defendants also failed to disclose that no traders at the CTA ever graduated beyond program Level 1 or earned the profits depicted on the “Payout Charts.”
Additionally, the complaint states that the defendants distributed misleading information in order to sell access to the CTA’s Virtual Trading Room. Regan and Pro Trading Course told potential clients that the Virtual Trading Room was operated on trading days by Regan and a team of successful traders. It was never clearly stated that the commodity trading taking place in the Virtual Trading Room was only simulated.
The CFTC is seeking repayment of funds to enrollees in its commodity futures training program, civil monetary penalties and a permanent injunction prohibiting PTC and Regan from violating federal commodity laws.
Read more about this CFTC enforcement action.
photo credit: dcJohn
