A disbarred Canadian attorney, John D. Briner, and his former law firm, MetroWest Law Corporation, have been slapped with a $280,000 penalty and lifetime trading bans for their involvement in a “money pass” scheme, according to a default judgment issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Judge Milton I. Shadur entered the order on August 2, 2016, stemming from a CFTC complaint filed in April 2015. Briner, residing in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and MetroWest, based in Vancouver, Canada, were found liable as principals for the fraudulent trading activities of their agent, Matthew J. Marcus.
The scheme involved the transfer of $390,000 between accounts through 1,248 pre-arranged, non-competitive trades of single stock futures contracts on the OneChicago LLC exchange between January 28 and February 5, 2014. Briner provided Marcus with login credentials to a trading account opened in the name of MetroWest, authorizing the trades.
The court determined Briner, as the sole owner and principal of MetroWest, was responsible for the firm’s trading violations under the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations. The order imposes permanent bans on Briner and MetroWest from registering, trading, and soliciting.
This judgment follows a separate consent order issued on July 7, 2016, against Marcus and his company, Tech Power Inc., which included a $250,000 penalty and a five-year trading ban. The CFTC acknowledged the assistance of the British Columbia Securities Commission in the investigation.
The CFTC’s Enforcement Division, led by Diane M. Romaniuk, and assisted by staff from the Office of Chief Counsel and OneChicago LLC, conducted the investigation and brought the case to conclusion.
Source: CFTC.gov
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