Brant L. Rushton of Champaign, Illinois, has been ordered to pay approximately $4.8 million in restitution and penalties for operating a fraudulent commodity pool, according to a federal court order issued April 3, 2013. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) obtained the order in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.
Rushton, along with his company Summit Trading & Capital LLC, fraudulently solicited nearly $2 million from investors for commodity pools trading futures contracts. The CFTC’s investigation, initially filed November 29, 2011, revealed that Rushton misrepresented his trading success to potential participants, falsely claiming consistent profits when his trading consistently resulted in losses. These losses were concealed through the issuance of fabricated account statements.
The court found that Rushton and Summit misappropriated approximately $1.2 million of the funds invested by pool participants. The order mandates joint payment of roughly $1.6 million in restitution to the defrauded investors and a $3.2 million civil monetary penalty.
In addition to the financial penalties, Rushton is permanently banned from trading and registering with the CFTC, and is prohibited from violating the Commodity Exchange Act and related regulations. This case runs parallel to a criminal action where Rushton pled guilty to related charges on July 12, 2012, and is scheduled to begin serving an eight-year prison sentence later in 2013.
The CFTC’s enforcement action against Melissa C. Rushton, Brant Rushton’s wife, remains ongoing as she is the sole remaining defendant in the case. The case was led by CFTC staff members Daniel Jordan, Michael Loconte, Erica Bodin, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner.
Source: CFTC.gov
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