June 13, 2018

Federal Court Orders Jamal Y. Vance and His Company All City Investments, LLC to Pay over $770,000 in Penalties for Solicitation Fraud and Failure to Register as a Commodity Trading Advisor

Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Judge Alison P. Nathan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a Consent Order against Defendant Jamal Y. Vance, finding that Vance committed solicitation fraud in connection with off-exchange foreign currency (forex) transactions and failed to register with the CFTC as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA), as required.

Judge Nathan also entered an Order for Final Judgment by Default (Default Judgment) against Defendant All City Investments, LLC (All City), Vance’s company through which he executed his fraudulent scheme.

The Consent Order requires Vance to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty, and the Default Judgment orders All City to pay a civil monetary penalty of $670,912.  Both Orders impose permanent trading and registration bans on Vance and All City, and prohibit them from further violating provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations, as charged.

The Orders stem from a CFTC Complaint filed on September 21, 2016 (see CFTC Press Release 7451-16).  The Orders collectively find that Vance and All City solicited customers on their website for the purpose of trading in forex accounts to be managed by Vance and All City.  Customers were also solicited, according to the Orders, to sign a limited power of attorney form which designated All City as those customers’ trading agent for the purpose of controlling, managing, or directing trading decisions for such customers’ forex accounts.  The Consent Order further finds that the All City website included purported testimonials from customers praising Vance for his forex trading knowledge and the returns obtained.  The Orders also find that Vance and All City were each required to be registered as a CTA and failed to do so.

In order to fraudulently induce customers to have All City and Vance act as their CTAs, Defendants’ website included a graph with an accompanying table and text (the Track Record) that falsely and misleadingly showed “2,675.10% growth” from December 2013 through September 2015, the Orders find.  The website further claimed that All City performed 444 trades during that timeframe broken down as follows: “Profit Trades: 442 (99.55%)” and “Loss Trades: 2 (0.45%).”  According to the Orders, the information on the Track Record was all false and/or misleading.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this matter are Katie Rasor, Judith Slowly, Christopher Giglio, Steven Ringer, Lenel Hickson, and Manal Sultan.

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CFTC’s Foreign Currency (Forex) Fraud Advisory

The CFTC has issued several customer protection Fraud Advisories that provide the warning signs of fraud, including the Foreign Currency Trading (Forex) Fraud Advisory, which states that the CFTC has witnessed a sharp rise in Forex trading scams in recent years and helps customers identify this potential fraud. 

Customers can report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the CFTC Division of Enforcement via a Toll-Free Hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382) or file a tip or complaint online.