Las Vegas resident Luis Salazar-Correa has been charged with fraud by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stemming from a scheme involving a pooled investment vehicle called Prosperity Team, LLC. The charges, filed and settled on June 6, 2012, allege that Salazar-Correa fraudulently solicited over $2.4 million from at least 183 customers between February 2009 and June 2010, promising guaranteed monthly returns of 10 to 25 percent on investments in leveraged foreign currency (forex) contracts.
According to the CFTC order, Salazar-Correa and Prosperity Team misrepresented the risks associated with forex trading. Instead of delivering the promised returns, the operation consistently incurred trading losses, totaling approximately $1,566,000. The CFTC alleges that the defendants operated a Ponzi scheme, using funds from new investors to pay existing customers.
Salazar-Correa and Prosperity Team further concealed their losses and fraudulent activity by issuing false statements online through the Prosperity Team website, accessible to investors. The CFTC found that the defendants misappropriated customer funds to cover trading losses and maintain the appearance of profitability.
The settlement requires Salazar-Correa and Prosperity Team to jointly pay a $1 million civil monetary penalty and $1,641,000 in restitution to affected customers. Both are permanently prohibited from engaging in commodity-related trading and from registering with the CFTC. They are also barred from future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.
The CFTC investigation received assistance from multiple international and domestic agencies, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation in Las Vegas, Nevada, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and regulatory bodies in Cyprus, Belize, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Source: CFTC.gov
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