Altamonte Springs, FL – Philip Leon, along with Paul Rangel and John Wilkins, are facing charges of futures, foreign currency (forex), and options fraud, and misappropriation, following a federal court enforcement action by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Judge Gregory Presnell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued an emergency order on July 16, 2012, freezing the assets of Leon, Rangel, Wilkins, and their company, Altamont Global Partners LLC (AGP).
The CFTC alleges that from March 2009 through June 22, 2012, AGP, owned and operated by Leon, Rangel, and Wilkins, fraudulently solicited approximately $13 million from roughly 198 investors for two investment pools: The McKinley Fund, LLC and The Matterhorn Fund, LLC. These pools traded futures, options, and off-exchange forex contracts.
According to the complaint, the defendants misappropriated over $5.2 million in pool funds, diverting them to cover AGP’s operating expenses, commission payments, travel, meals, entertainment, $140,000 in credit card payments for Leon’s wife, and a loan to Leon. The misappropriation also included approximately $1,419,000 in “loans” and “advances” to Leon, $615,000 to Rangel, and $651,000 to Wilkins.
The CFTC further alleges that the defendants distributed false quarterly account statements to investors, falsely reporting profits. As of March 31, 2012, these statements indicated a combined value of approximately $16.5 million across both pools, while the actual value of assets held was only around $3.2 million.
AGP and Wilkins are accused of attempting to conceal their fraudulent activity from the National Futures Association (NFA) during a June 2012 examination. They allegedly provided false balance sheets and oral statements to hide trading losses and the misappropriation of funds. Wilkins eventually admitted to NFA staff that the inflated quarterly statements had been issued since 2009.
The CFTC is seeking civil monetary penalties, restitution, rescission, and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains in its ongoing litigation. A hearing date has been set for July 30, 2012.
Source: CFTC.gov
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