A US court entered a summary judgment order against Michael DaCorta earlier this month for his involvement in a massive retail forex fraud and ordered three of his companies and four other individuals to pay about $60 million. The order against DaCorta includes a permanent injunction, monetary sanctions, and equitable relief.

The settling defendants who agreed to the consent order are Oasis International Group, Limited; Oasis Management, LLC; Satellite Holdings Company; Joseph Anile, Frank Duran, Raymond Montie, and John Haas.

‘Guaranteed Return’ Is the Phrase to Get Cautious

As announced by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday (Wednesday), DaCorta operated and participated in a fraudulent scheme that defrauded about 800 pool participants who sent more than $80 million to the three entities.

The schemes, which ran between April 2014 and April 2019, received the proceeds for trading in leveraged, margined, or financed retail forex transactions. It guaranteed a return of at least 12 percent.

Now, the court's summary judgment requires DaCorta to return over $53.2 million to the victims and pay an additional $8.45 million as a civil monetary penalty, which is triple his gain from the fraudulent scheme.

“The court noted this penalty was necessary to account for the severity of the conduct and to provide sufficient future deterrence because DaCorta violated core provisions of the CEA knowingly and repeatedly; did not accept responsibility for his actions; and committed these violations while already bound by a 2010 settlement with the National Futures Association (NFA) that prohibited him from trading in any capacity that would require NFA registration,” the CFTC, which brought the case to the court, noted.

Massive Penalties

Under the consent order, the three entities and Anile must return another $53.2 million to the defrauded pool participants. It also requires Anile to pay $5 million in penalties while Duran has to pay $779,738 in disgorgement and a civil monetary penalty of $389,869. Montie has to pay $620,805 in disgorgement and a fine of $310,402, and Haas has to pay $1.1 million in disgorgement and a penalty of $551,798.62.

DaCorta is already serving a 23-year prison sentence after his criminal conviction last year for conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, illegal monetary transactions, and filing false income tax returns for Oasis entities.