Miami Beach resident Randy Burstein has been slapped with a hefty penalty and trading ban following a CFTC enforcement action, officials announced July 20, 2009. Burstein, a former employee of Liberty Financial Trading Corp., Inc. and Liberty Real Assets Investment Corporation, was found to have engaged in fraudulent solicitation of customers interested in trading commodity options.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission secured a consent order filed on July 15, 2009, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, presided over by Honorable K. Michael Moore. The order requires Burstein to pay $120,000 in restitution to customers he defrauded, and an additional $120,000 civil monetary penalty. Furthermore, Burstein is permanently banned from trading and registering with the CFTC.
According to the court findings, Burstein, while working at Liberty, made false and misleading claims to potential clients. He misrepresented the potential for profits from commodity options trading, simultaneously downplaying the inherent risks involved. He also failed to disclose Liberty’s poor track record in trading commodity options for customer accounts, and misrepresented the actual performance of those accounts to prospective investors.
Nader Yazdani, of Boca Raton, Florida, and also a former Liberty employee, was similarly penalized. Yazdani will pay $10,000 in restitution and a $30,000 civil monetary penalty, and is also subject to a permanent trading and registration ban. This case follows earlier consent orders issued against Liberty, Ted Romeo, and Leslie Weiner – Burstein and Yazdani’s co-defendants – for the same fraudulent activities. Those orders also included restitution, penalties, and bans.
The CFTC’s Division of Enforcement, led by Alan Edelman, James Holl III, Lacey Dingman, Kara Mucha, Gretchen Lowe, and Vincent A. McGonagle, investigated the case.
Source: CFTC.gov
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