Release: 4956-04
For Release: July 14, 2004

FEDERAL COURT ORDERS FLORIDA RESIDENTS TO PAY MORE THAN $22 MILLION IN COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION FOREIGN CURRENCY FRAUD ACTION

Court Orders Defendant Donald O’Neill and His Companies to Repay Over $12 Million to Investors and Pay Civil Monetary Penalties Totaling $10.6 Million

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida has issued a supplemental order requiring payment of restitution and civil monetary penalties by defendant Donald O’Neill (O'Neill) and the eight corporate defendants he controlled and that constituted the "Orca Common Enterprise," as alleged in the CFTC's previously filed complaint (see CFTC News Release 4703-02, September 19, 2002). Previously, on November 14, 2003, the court entered an order of permanent injunction and a final judgment against the defendants (see Related Documents for the order).

The orders find that the defendants, while soliciting customer funds for the purchase of foreign currency futures contracts, made material misrepresentations and omissions to customers, and then misappropriated customer funds by spending the money on personal expenses, including, among other things, chartered aircraft trips, the purchase of luxury homes and automobiles, and gambling junkets to Las Vegas.

Defendant O’Neill, after absconding from the CFTC's civil action in 2003 and, later, from a federal criminal indictment, was apprehended by federal agents in Rome, Italy, in March 2004 and is currently incarcerated, awaiting a criminal trial in Miami. (See CFTC News Release 4838-03.)

The following CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members were responsible for this case: Ghassan Hitti, Peter Haas, Paul G. Hayeck, Alan Edelman, Patricia Gomersall, Wendy Z. Woods, Joan Manley, and Susan B. Bovee.

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Media Contacts
Alan Sobba
(202) 418-5080
Dennis Holden
(202) 418-5088
Office of External Affairs

Staff Contact
Peter Haas
Chief Trial Attorney
CFTC Division of Enforcement
(202) 418-5377

Related Documents
Supplemental Order
Order of Permanent Injunction