The CFTC has filed a complaint against  Brant and Melissa Rushton and their company Summit Trading and Capital LLC, an unregistered Commodity Pool Operator (“CPO”), in connection with alleged commodities fraud. A U.S. District Court issued an order freezing their assets, prohibiting the destruction of their books and records, and opening their documents to CFTC scrutiny.

According to the complaint, from August 2005 to the present, the defendants solicited the public to invest in commodity pools managed under Summit Trading’s name. The Rushtons exaggerated the profitability of their pools, and provided false tax forms to sustain their scheme. In this manner, they were able to solicit at least $854,000. The majority of the funds invested were mismanaged. Some were invested and lost in commodities trading, some were returned to customers, and the remainder were illegally co-mingled with the defendants’ own money. However, the Rushtons gave clients false account statements showing profitable trading to hide the fraud.

The CFTC is seeking the return of ill-gotten gains, restitution to defrauded investors, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions against further violations of the federal commodities laws.

Read more about this CFTC enforcement action.
photo credit: eriwst