Oklahoma City, OK – February 10, 2009 – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced an enforcement action against Mark S. Trimble, of Edmond, Oklahoma, alleging he operated a $34 million Ponzi scheme through his company, Phidippides Capital Management LLC (PCM), and the associated hedge fund, Phidippides Capital LP.
The CFTC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, seeking a statutory restraining order to freeze Trimble’s assets and preserve records. Trimble has reportedly consented to the asset freeze.
According to the complaint, from at least 2005 until early 2009, Trimble and PCM managed a hedge fund with approximately 60 investors. The CFTC alleges that since at least October 2007, Trimble issued false account statements, concealed multi-million dollar trading losses, and operated the fund as a Ponzi scheme, using new investor funds to pay existing investors. The scheme reportedly generated over $1 million in management fees based on fabricated profit reports.
The fraudulent activity was exposed in late January 2009 when Trimble provided the FBI with a falsified 2008 year-end trading account. This account falsely showed millions in profits, contradicting actual trading statements from his brokerage firm which documented substantial losses. Trimble subsequently admitted to being dishonest about the fund’s performance in an email to investors, stating he could not face them after revealing the fund had lost all profits for the year and more.
“Through the swift action of CFTC staff, millions of dollars have been frozen, which ultimately we will seek to return to the victims Trimble deceived by his scheme,” said Stephen J. Obie, CFTC Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement. “The CFTC continues to zealously prosecute these lecherous schemes, so that as many assets can be preserved as possible as we fulfill our vital mission to protect customers from fraud and abuse.”
The CFTC is seeking civil monetary penalties, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, restitution for defrauded customers, and injunctive relief. The agency received assistance from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in the investigation.
Source: CFTC.gov
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