Texas Man and His Company Ordered to Pay Over $13 Million in CFTC Commodities Fraud Case
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on November 3 that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a default judgment against Walter Dunning Larrick III and Cambridge Financial Advisors LLC for their participation in a commodities fraud scheme. The court ordered the defendants to pay a $9,767,625 civil monetary penalty and $3,255,875 in restitution, more than $13 million in total.
In entering the default judgment, the court found the defendants fraudulently solicited and misappropriated more than $3 million from participants. The defendants falsely represented they would use participant funds to trade futures and options, including those involving natural gas, oil, and gold; made material misrepresentations and omissions about the profitability of commodity trading with them; and issued false account statements to conceal their misconduct.
The court further found the defendants misappropriated participant funds by making payments to existing participants in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme, paying Larrick's personal expenses, and sending funds to offshore accounts in Costa Rica.
The default judgment resolves all claims in the CFTC's 2023 complaint. In that complaint, the CFTC alleged that from at least November 2020 through at least January 2023, Larrick and Cambridge fraudulently induced at least 70 people to invest over $3.6 million in a purported commodity pool and misappropriated most of the pool funds.
The court also permanently enjoined the defendants from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, as charged, and imposed permanent trading and registration bans.
(Source: U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission)
Source: U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国商品期货交易委员会（CFTC）位于华盛顿的总部入口（1155 21st Street NW，Lafayette Centre）。ajay_suresh 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Entrance of the CFTC headquarters at 1155 21st Street NW, Lafayette Centre, Washington, D.C. Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
