West Covina, CA – July 28, 2011 – Ruben Gonzalez, along with New Golden Investment Group, LLC (NGI) and Jose Naranjo, have been slapped with hefty penalties and bans following a CFTC investigation into a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. Judge Otis D. Wright II of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered default judgments and permanent injunctions against all three defendants.
The CFTC originally filed a complaint on May 20, 2010, alleging that NGI, Gonzalez, and Naranjo fraudulently solicited approximately $3.65 million from at least 165 members of the Los Angeles-area Spanish-speaking community, promising returns on investments including commodity futures and foreign currency trading. The complaint detailed how the defendants misappropriated investor funds for personal expenses.
Gonzalez was previously sentenced to over 11 years in prison in December 2010 after pleading guilty to fraud in a related criminal case. He was also ordered to pay $2,220,771.49 in restitution. The civil judgments further require him to disgorge $249,000 and pay a $748,500 civil monetary penalty.
NGI and Naranjo were each ordered to pay $2,220,771.49 in restitution, along with disgorgement of $558,000 and $267,000 respectively, and civil penalties of $1,674,000 and $801,000. Naranjo, a Mexican national, is believed to have fled the United States.
Court findings revealed the defendants falsely claimed they could double investors’ money within a year. Instead, over $1 million in customer funds was used to finance lavish purchases such as a Mercedes-Benz, airline tickets, and mortgage payments. The scheme relied on a classic Ponzi structure, using funds from new investors to pay fabricated profits to earlier investors.
The CFTC collaborated with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the case.
Source: CFTC.gov
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