NEW YORK, NY – James de Wet, a South African resident, has been ordered to pay $828,390 in restitution to victims of a foreign currency (forex) trading fraud, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today.
U.S. District Judge Harold Baer, Jr. for the Southern District of New York also levied a $120,000 civil monetary penalty against de Wet and ordered him to disgorge $63,070 in illegally obtained compensation. The judgment, entered on July 31, 2006, stems from a CFTC complaint filed in CFTC v. James de Wet (05 CV 8401) and resolves charges of violating the Commodity Exchange Act.
According to the CFTC, de Wet operated Team Forex International (Team Forex) through the website www.teamforex.com, beginning in October 2002. He solicited at least 200 customers, including 35 U.S. residents, to open managed forex futures trading accounts.
The court found that de Wet fraudulently solicited clients by making false claims about Team Forex’s past performance. Published trading results on the company website were, in many cases, significantly different from the actual performance of managed accounts. Furthermore, the website falsely stated that these results had been “audited.”
This monetary judgment supplements a permanent injunction issued on April 10, 2006, which prohibits de Wet from participating in any business related to commodity futures and options trading.
The case was led by CFTC staff members Karin N. Roth, Linda Santiago, David W. MacGregor, Lenel Hickson, Stephen J. Obie, and Richard Wagner.
The judgment was entered on August 16, 2006.
Source: CFTC.gov
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