BEND, OR – Brant Rushton and his wife, Melissa Rushton, are facing federal charges of fraud after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) secured an emergency court order freezing their assets on November 29, 2011. The order, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, also prevents the couple from destroying financial records and allows the CFTC immediate access to those documents.
According to the CFTC’s complaint, the Rushtons, formerly of Champaign, Illinois, and currently residing in Bend, Oregon, allegedly defrauded investors out of at least $854,000 between August 2005 and the present. They did so through their company, Summit Trading & Capital LLC, by soliciting funds for three commodity pools.
The CFTC alleges the Rushtons misrepresented the profitability of their trading program to potential investors, both verbally and in written prospectuses. They are also accused of issuing false account statements and falsified IRS Form 1099s to maintain the deception. The complaint further details that the couple misappropriated the majority of the investors’ funds.
The CFTC is pursuing a full recovery of ill-gotten gains, restitution for the defrauded investors, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions to prevent further violations of federal commodities laws. The U.S. Marshals Service for the District of Oregon, Eugene Division, assisted in the investigation.
Daniel Jordan, Michael Loconte, Erica Bodin, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner of the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement are leading the litigation. The case was filed December 1, 2011, in Illinois.
Source: CFTC.gov
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