CFTC Successfully Prosecutes PMC Strategy For Forex Ponzi Scheme

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has obtained federal court orders requiring Defendants Timothy Bailey of Monroe, North Carolina, Michael Hudspeth, formerly of Statesville, North Carolina, and their company, PMC Strategy, LLC (PMC), to pay over $1.8 million for solicitation fraud and misappropriation in connection with an off-exchange Forex Ponzi scheme that solicited at least $669,000 from more than 22 individuals.

Judge Graham C. Mullen of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina entered an Order of Default Judgment and Permanent Injunction against Defendants PMC and Bailey on October 18, 2012, requiring PMC and Bailey jointly to pay over $429,700 in restitution to defrauded pool participants. The Order also imposes a civil monetary penalty of $560,000 on PMC and $420,000 on Bailey and permanently bans them from trading and registering with the CFTC.

The Order finds that PMC and Bailey violated the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) by fraudulently soliciting pool participants to trade forex, misappropriating pool participant funds, issuing false account statements, and refusing to return pool participant funds. PMC claimed to have earned a profit of $160,000 from January through June 2008 as a result of its Forex Trading , according to the Order. However, these representations were false, as PMC was not formed until June 18, 2008, and engaged in no forex trading until July 2008.

Furthermore, PMC and Bailey sent false monthly profit checks to pool participants purporting to represent profits earned, when in fact PMC incurred trading losses in 15 of the 22 months it traded, and was overall net negative from October 2008 onward, according to the Order.

Subsequently, on April 3, 2013, Judge Mullen granted Summary Judgment against Defendant Hudspeth finding him liable for the same violations of the CEA as Bailey and PMC, and making Hudspeth jointly and severally liable with Bailey and PMC for the $429,700 restitution award previously ordered by the Court. The Order also imposes a $420,000 civil monetary penalty against Hudspeth and permanently bans him from the commodities industry.

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Eugenia Vroustouris, Michael Loconte, Daniel Jordan, Rick Glaser, and Richard B. Wagner.