A commodities trader who was under sanctions from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has now also pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with an investment club that allegedly duped investors.
Last November, the CFTC filed a complaint against Brian Mitchell and Kevin Mack Jr. and their company, Young Pros Investment Group LLC, alleging that between December 2020 and May 2022, they misled investors to induce them to invest in an unregistered commodity futures trading scheme.
The regulator also alleged that they sustained the scheme by providing investors with falsified account statements, and using investors’ assets to pay returns to other investors.
Additionally, the CFTC alleged that Mitchell violated a CFTC enforcement order against him from 2021, which banned him from trading for three years for providing trading advice without registering.
Now, Mitchell has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, and admitted to misleading investors, in connection with the scheme.
He also admitted to violating his earlier enforcement settlement with the CFTC, which was reached while the Young Pros scheme was underway.
“Despite that ban, Mitchell continued to solicit, accept, and trade third-party investment funds in commodity futures and failed to disclose his trading bar to investors,” U.S. authorities alleged.
Under the plea agreement, Mitchell agreed to pay US$2.7 million in restitution to victims of the scheme.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 7 in U.S. federal court.
In 2025, Mitchell, along with Mack and Young Pros, were also the subject of disciplinary proceedings brought by securities regulators in Maryland, which found that they sold unregistered securities, misled investors, and traded without registration.
In its final order against them, the securities division of the state attorney general’s office permanently banned them, and imposed a US$650,000 fine.