Barry Carlton Taylor, Securities Fraud, North Carolina 2024

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A Franklin, N.C. man has pleaded guilty to securities fraud and money laundering charges for defrauding commodities trading investors of approximately $2.5 million, announced Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Barry Carlton Taylor, 64, of Franklin, N.C., solicited investment funds from at least 18 victims totaling approximately $2.5 million. Taylor operated two limited liability companies in Franklin, N.C., “OTC Investments, LLC” (OTC) and “Forex Currency Trade Advisors, LLC” (FCTA). According to filed documents, Taylor misrepresented to his investor victims that he was an expert in the foreign currency exchange market (FOREX) and that their investments would be pooled into trading accounts which he would manage and use to invest in FOREX.

Taylor also falsely told his victims that he had created a computer software system that could track the FOREX market, which enabled him to make investments that generated very high rates of return, as much as 2.5% per month. According to court records, even though Taylor opened and maintained FOREX trading accounts in the names of his two companies, neither company was registered as a commodity pool operator.

Court records also show that Taylor collected money from the individual victim investors and deposited the funds into these trading accounts, but he then withdrew more than half of the victims’ money and lost the rest due to trading losses, fees and commissions. According to court records, by April 2015 there was very little or no investor funds remaining in the trading accounts Taylor controlled.

Taylor concealed the losses from his investors by sending the victims false monthly statements that fraudulently represented that the investors’ principal was intact and that they were realizing profits as promised. Taylor also used money from other principal investors to make Ponzi-style payments to investors who had asked Taylor to withdraw their profits on their promised returns.

Taylor was released on bond following his guilty plea. The fraud by commodities pool operator charge carries a maximum prison term of 10 years and a $1 million fine. The concealment money laundering charge carries a maximum prison term of 20 years and a $500,000 fine. A sentencing date for the defendant has not been set.

The case is being investigated by the FBI, and U.S. Attorney Rose thanked the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission for their invaluable assistance in this investigation.

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