A U.S. court has issued a judgment against a Canadian man and his company, which is alleged to be part of a Ponzi scheme.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports that the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire has entered final judgments by default against New Futures Trading International Corp. and Henry Roche, a Canadian resident who, the SEC says directed the firm in a Ponzi scheme.
The court, acting on the commission’s motion for default judgments, entered final judgments: ordering Roche and the firm to each disgorge US$1.2 million of ill-gotten gains, plus prejudgment interest of US$40,917; ordering monetary penalties of US$150,000 against both; and, imposing permanent injunctions against them.
In a complaint, filed on November 16, 2011, the commission alleged that Roche, through New Futures, had been engaged in an ongoing unregistered offering of securities in the US through operations in New Hampshire and Ontario. It alleged that, since December 2010, Roche had raised over US$1.3 million from at least 14 investors in nine states through the sale of high yield promissory notes.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Roche represented to some investors that funds supplied would be invested in bonds, Treasury notes and/or 10-year Treasury note futures contracts, and to others that the funds would be invested directly in New Futures, purportedly an on-line futures day-trading training business he was operating from Canada.
However, the SEC alleges that Roche used approximately US$937,000 to make Ponzi ‘interest’ payments to investors in prior Roche-controlled entities. And, it says that he misappropriated at least another US$359,000 to support his lifestyle, to operate a horse breeding venture, and to buy horses.