The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of a civil enforcement complaint against Jamal Y. Vance and his company, charging them with operating a fraudulent scheme that offered Forex and commodity futures transactions.
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The U.S. derivatives regulator says that Jamal Y. Vance and All City Investments, LLC fraudulently solicited customers on their website, allcityinvestments.com, to open and deposit funds with a brokerage firm based in Dominica. They also demanded that the victims sign a limited power of attorney that designated this broker, which provides an online forex Trading Platform , as an agent to transact in margined FX transactions on their behalf.
In connection with the promotion of his pool, Jamal, using his website, made a series of materially false claims to lure investors interested in forex trading. Specifically, the claims to bolster credibility included that his trading activities yielded 2,675.10% growth in nearly two years, from December 2013 through September 2015. It further falsely claimed that All City performed 444 trades during that timeframe, 442 (99.55%) of which made profits while only two trades were lost.
As also alleged, the website contained a graph with an accompanying table and text that misleadingly showed a track record with false information. Vance and All City are also charged with acting as a commodity trading advisor, or associated person of a CTA, without obtaining the required registrations.
As a result of the actions the commission seeks full restitution to defrauded participants, disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains and a civil monetary penalty. In addition to the fiscal penalties the CFTC seeks “permanent registration and trading bans, and a permanent injunction against future violations of federal commodities laws,” as charged.
Finally, the CFTC warned victims in its statement that they may not recover their lost money because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets.
The U.S. watchdog has been actively targeting firms and individuals involved in the illegal trading and fraudulent activity. The CFTC has issued several customer protection Fraud Advisories that provide the warning signs of fraud, including the Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory, which warns customers about a type of fraud that involves individuals and firms, often unregistered, offering investments in commodity pools.
