HOUSTON MAN & CO. CHARGED WITH ALLEGED COMMODITY POOL FRAUD

FROM: COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
July 11, 2012
CFTC Charges Houston-based Christopher Daley and his company, TC Credit Service, LLC, with Solicitation Fraud and Misappropriation in $1.4 Million Dollar Commodity Pool Scheme federal court enters order freezing defendants’ assets and preserving books and recordsWashington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of an anti-fraud enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, charging Christopher D. Daley (Daley) of Houston, Texas, and his firm, TC Credit Service, LLC (TCCS) (doing business as Del-Mair Group, LLC) with operating a commodity pool scheme that fraudulently solicited and accepted approximately $1.4 million from the public. Daley was owner and sole employee of TCCS, and none of the defendants has ever been registered with the CFTC.

On June 19, 2012, a day after the CFTC filed its complaint, the Honorable Judge Lynn N. Hughes, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, issued an emergency order under seal, freezing the defendants’ assets and prohibiting the destruction of books and records.

The CFTC complaint alleges that from at least January 2010 and continuing through at least November 2011, Daley and TCCS fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $1,427,688 from at least 55 members of the public to participate in a commodity pool to trade crude oil futures contracts. TCCS did not at any time during this period maintain any commodity accounts in its name, and Daley’s personal trading accounts sustained consistent net losses each month, according to the complaint. Daley, however, allegedly used only a portion of pool participants’ funds to trade futures contracts, while misappropriating the rest of the funds. Daley used at least $100,000 of pool participants’ funds to pay for personal expenses, such as rent and personal loan payments, and transferred approximately $195,000 of pool participant’s funds to his own personal bank accounts, according to the complaint.

The complaint further alleges that Daley made fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions of material fact, including (1) misrepresenting that Daley’s trading in crude oil futures contracts generated and would generate 20 percent monthly returns on deposits, (2) misrepresenting that the pool never had a losing month, (3) misrepresenting that the pool’s value had increased 60 percent for the year as of March 2011, and (4) omitting that Daley misappropriated pool participants’ funds, that the pool never maintained any commodity interest account in its own name, that Daley’s personal futures trading accounts sustained consistent monthly losses, and that Daley was not properly registered as a Commodity Pool Operator with the CFTC. Moreover, the complaint alleges that Daley issued false account statements to pool participants to conceal the fraud.

In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks restitution to defrauded customers, a return of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions against further violations of federal commodities laws.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Eugene Smith, Patricia Gomersall, Christine Ryall, Antoinette Chance, Paul Hayeck, and Joan Manley.