$2.5 MILLION IN SACNCTIONS ORDRED AGAINST OWNERS AND THEIR PRECIOUS METALS TRADING COMPANIES

FROM:  U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION 

February 5, 2015

CFTC Orders Florida Residents Isaiah Goldman and Brock Catronio and their Companies, Paramount Metals Exchange, LLC and Paramount Credit, LLC, to Pay More than $2.5 Million in Sanctions for Engaging in Illegal, Off-Exchange Precious Metals Transactions

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an Order filing and simultaneously settling charges against Isaiah Goldman and Brock Catronio, individually, and their companies, Paramount Metals Exchange, LLC and Paramount Credit, LLC (collectively Paramount), both of Delray Beach, Florida, for engaging in illegal, off-exchange precious metals transactions. Goldman resides in Boca Raton, Florida, and Catronio resides in Delray Beach.

The CFTC Order requires Goldman, Catronio, and Paramount jointly to pay restitution of $1,595,946 to their customers and jointly to pay a $1 million civil monetary penalty. In addition, the Order imposes permanent registration and trading bans on Goldman, Catronio, and Paramount.

The Order finds that, from December 2011 through February 2013, Goldman, Catronio, and Paramount solicited retail customers to engage in outright cash purchases of precious metals, falsely claiming to sell and transfer title of physical metals to customers and to arrange for the transfer and storage of the physical metals in independent depositories where such metal was purportedly held on the customers’ behalf.

The Order states that unknown to Paramount customers, Goldman, Catronio, and Paramount instead treated the customers’ transactions as financed purchases of metal in which the retail customer only paid a portion of the purchase price and took out a loan for the balance of the purchase price. According to the Order, Paramount’s customers paid a total of $3,306,032 and lost $1,595,946 of their funds to trading losses, commissions, interest charges, and other fees to Paramount and another company. Goldman, Catronio, and Paramount received $853,279 of those commissions and fees. Thus, the Order finds that, among other specific findings, Goldman, Catronio, and Paramount engaged in illegal, off-exchange transactions and committed fraud, violating provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act.

Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, financed transactions such as those conducted by Paramount, are illegal off-exchange transactions unless they result in actual delivery of metal within 28 days. According to the Order, Paramount’s retail financed precious metals transactions executed through Hunter Wise Commodities LLC did not result in actual delivery to the customer. In addition, as explained in the CFTC Order, financed transactions such as these must be executed on or subject to the rules of an exchange approved by the CFTC, which Paramount did not do.

The CFTC cautions that restitution orders may not result in the recovery of money lost because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets. The CFTC will continue to fight vigorously for the protection of customers and to ensure the wrongdoers are held accountable.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this action are Susan B. Padove, Heather Johnson, Elizabeth M. Streit, Scott Williamson, and Rosemary Hollinger.

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CFTC’s Precious Metals Customer Fraud Advisory

FLORIDA BASED WORTH GROUP INC. CHARGED BY CFTC IN $72 MILLION ALLEGED PRECIOUS METALS FRAUD

FROM:  COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

CFTC Charges Florida-Based Worth Group Inc. and Its Principals, Andrew Wilshire and Eugenia Mildner, in Multi-Million Dollar Fraudulent Precious Metals Scheme

CFTC alleges that Defendants, who took in more than $73 million, defrauded customers in connection with precious metals transactions and engaged in illegal off-exchange commodity transactions.

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that on August 13, 2013, it filed a civil injunctive enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Worth Group Inc. (Worth), as well as its owner, Andrew Wilshire, and its sole officer and director, Eugenia Mildner, all of Jupiter, Florida. The CFTC’s Complaint charges that Defendants defrauded retail precious metals customers and engaged in illegal, off-exchange retail commodity transactions from July 16, 2011, through the present.

According to the Complaint, Worth purported to sell physical metal, including gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, on a fully-paid basis, as well as on a financed basis, to hundreds of retail customers located throughout the United States. The Complaint alleges that Worth falsely represented to customers that, within 28 days of a customer’s purchase, Worth would deliver metal either to the customers directly or to a depository that would hold the metal for the customer. The Complaint alleges that pursuant to the scheme, Worth took in over $73 million in customer funds between July 18, 2011, and December 31, 2012.

As alleged, in connection with fully-paid transactions, customers paid the full purchase price to Worth for metals, having been told that Worth would deliver metal in return. The Complaint alleges that from at least August 15, 2011, through November 8, 2012, however, Worth did not actually deliver metal to most customers. Instead, rather than deliver actual metal, Worth’s typical practice after receiving customer money was to purchase metals derivatives in accounts owned by Worth. These derivatives purportedly “covered” customer transactions, but, contrary to Worth’s representations to customers, did not involve the purchase, transfer, or physical delivery of precious metals to Worth, let alone to its retail customers.

Retail customers engaging in financed transactions with Worth were told that they were borrowing money to purchase precious metals. Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank), a financed transaction such as that conducted by Worth is an illegal off-exchange transaction unless it results in actual delivery of metal within 28 days. The Complaint alleges that Worth often failed to make such delivery on a timely basis. Worth thus defrauded its customers and subjected them to undisclosed exposure to Worth’s credit, as they were left with only Worth’s commitment to deliver metal rather than the promised metal itself.

The Complaint further alleges that as persons controlling Worth’s precious metals operations, Wilshire and Mildner are liable for Worth’s violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and a CFTC Regulation.

In its continuing litigation against Defendants, the CFTC seeks preliminary and permanent civil injunctions in addition to other remedial relief, including restitution, civil monetary penalties, and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.

This is the third action the CFTC has brought against entities and individuals who purport to buy precious metals and transfer ownership of those metals to customers, when insufficient metal, or no metal at all, is in fact purchased and delivered (see CFTC Press Releases 6447-12 and 6655-13).

David Meister, the CFTC’s Enforcement Director, stated: “The rules of the new Dodd-Frank law are simple: Companies and individuals who purport to sell precious metals to the retail public, and who say they are supplying real metal, must actually deliver real metal. As today’s case shows, along with previously filed Complaints against Hunter Wise Commodities, LLC and AmeriFirst Management, LLC, we will not hesitate to pursue wrongdoers who say they are providing investments in real precious metals to the American public when in fact they are providing nothing of the sort.”

The CFTC thanks the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority for its assistance in this matter.

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this matter are Theodore Z. Polley III, Melissa Glasbrenner, William P. Janulis, Scott Williamson, Rosemary Hollinger, and Richard B. Wagner.

CFTC’s Precious Metals Fraud Advisory

In January 2012, the CFTC issued a Precious Metals Consumer Fraud Advisory to alert customers to precious metals fraud. The Advisory states that the CFTC had seen an increase in the number of companies offering customers the opportunity to buy or invest in precious metals. The CFTC’s Advisory specifically warns that companies often fail to purchase any physical metals for their customers, instead simply keeping the customer’s funds. The Advisory further cautions customers that leveraged commodity transactions are unlawful unless executed on a regulated exchange.

INDIVIDUALS AND FIRMS CHARGED BY CFTC FOR ILLEGAL OFF-ECHANGE PRECIOUS METALS TRANSACTIONS

FROM: U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
January 28, 2013

CFTC Charges Four Florida-based Precious Metals Firms and Three Individuals for Engaging in Illegal Retail Off-Exchange Transactions in Precious Metals

CFTC Orders Bar Secured Precious Metals International, Inc., Secured Precious Metals Management, Inc., Barclay Metals, Inc., Universal Clearing, LLC, Linda Laramie, Sean Stropp, and Sylvia Williams from commodities industry for five-years

Washington DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued two Orders filing and settling charges against two Fort Lauderdale, Fla. companies, Secured Precious Metals International, Inc. and Secured Precious Metals Management, Inc., and their sole owner and principal, Linda Laramie (collectively SPM), as well as two West Palm Beach, Fla. companies, Barclay Metals, Inc. and Universal Clearing, LLC, and their owners and principals, Sean Stropp and Sylvia Williams (collectively Barclay), all for engaging in illegal off-exchange financed transactions in precious metals with retail customers.

The Illegal Transactions

The CFTC Orders find that from July 2011 through June 2012, SPM and Barclay solicited retail customers, generally by telephone or through their websites, to buy and sell physical precious metals, such as gold and silver, in off-exchange leverage transactions. According to the Orders, customers paid as little as 20 percent of the purchase price for the metals, and SPM and Barclay purportedly financed the remainder of the purchase price, while charging the customers interest on the amount borrowed. The CFTC Orders state that financed off-exchange transactions with retail customers have been illegal since July 16, 2011, when certain amendments of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 became effective. As explained in the Orders, financed transactions in commodities with retail customers like those engaged in by SPM and Barclay must be executed on, or subject to, the rules of a board of trade that has been approved by the CFTC. Since SPM and Barclay’s transactions were done off-exchange with customers who were not eligible contract participants, they were illegal, the Orders find.

The CFTC Orders also state that SPM and Barclay acted as dealers for Hunter Wise Commodities, LLC (Hunter Wise), a metals merchant. The CFTC filed suit in federal court in Florida against Hunter Wise on December 5, 2012 (see CFTC Release 6447-12). However, as alleged in the CFTC complaint against Hunter Wise and according to the orders entered against SPM and Barclay, neither SPM, Barclay, nor Hunter Wise purchased physical commodities on the customers’ behalf, disbursed any funds to finance the remaining portion of the purchase price, or stored any physical commodities for customers. The Orders find that SPM and Barclay’s customers thus never owned, possessed, or received title to the physical commodities that they believed they purchased.

The CFTC Orders require SPM and Barclay to cease and desist from violating Section 4(a) of the Commodity Exchange Act, as charged, and prohibit them for a five-year period from trading on or pursuant to the rules of any registered entity. The Orders also require SPM and Barclay to comply with certain undertakings, including cooperating fully and expeditiously with the CFTC in related matters. The Orders, which do not impose civil monetary penalties, acknowledge the substantial cooperation of SPM and Barclay.

CFTC’s Precious Metals Fraud Advisory

In January 2012, the CFTC issued a Consumer Fraud Advisory regarding precious metals fraud, saying that it had seen an increase in the number of companies offering customers the opportunity to buy or invest in precious metals (see the Advisory). The CFTC’s Precious Metals Consumer Fraud Advisory specifically warns that frequently companies do not purchase any physical metals for the customer, instead simply keeping the customer’s funds. The Advisory further cautions consumers that leveraged commodity transactions are unlawful unless executed on a regulated exchange.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this matter: David Terrell, Joy McCormack, Jennifer Chapin, Steve Turley, Jeff Le Riche, Elizabeth M. Streit, Scott R. Williamson, Rosemary Hollinger, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner.