Federal court enters order freezing defendants’ assets and prohibiting destruction of books and records.
Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that a federal court in Charlotte, N.C., entered an emergency order freezing assets held by defendants Toby D. Hunter of Waxhaw, N.C., and his companies, Prestige Capital Advisors, LLC (Prestige) and D2W Capital Management, LLC (D2W) of Charlotte, N.C. The court’s order, entered by Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr., also prohibits the destruction of books and records and grants the CFTC immediate access to such documents. The judge ordered Hunter to appear in court on October 3, 2011, for a preliminary injunction hearing.
The order arises out of a CFTC civil complaint filed on September 6, 2011, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division. The CFTC’s complaint alleges that, since April 2008, Hunter, Prestige, and D2W fraudulently solicited and accepted funds from the general public to trade pooled investments in commodity futures, options on commodity futures and managed Forex accounts. As a result of defendants’ allegedly fraudulent solicitation, at least six individuals invested $4.65 million with the Prestige Multi-Strategy Fund, LP, a pool established by Hunter and Prestige. In addition, the defendants solicited and received $2.36 million in connection with Forex Trading accounts managed by D2W. Defendants also allegedly misrepresented the profitability of their trading programs by posting false purported returns on a website called BarclayHedge.
The complaint further alleges that defendants misappropriated some of the Prestige investors’ funds and issued false account statements to investors in both schemes in order to perpetuate defendants’ fraud.
In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks a return of ill-gotten gains, restitution to defrauded customers, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions against further violations of the federal commodities laws.
The CFTC appreciates the assistance of the National Futures Association and the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority.
The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this action are Eugenia Vroustouris, Dan Jordan, Michael Loconte, Erica Bodin, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner.
