December 7, 2010

U.S. District Court Orders Two Florida Residents and a Florida Firm to Pay More Than $4 Million for Defrauding Investors in a Foreign Currency Scheme

Court enters default judgment against Pedro de Sousa and Guillermo Rosario and their Company, FX Professional Solutions, because they issued false account statements in a foreign currency fraud.

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it obtained a default judgment order requiring FX Professional International Solutions, Inc. (FXP) (aka FX Professional Solutions, LLC) and its principals, Pedro de Sousa (aka Pedroiz J. Sanz), all of Orlando, Fla., and Guillermo Rosario (aka Guillermo Rosario and Guillermo Rosario-Colon) of Coral Gables, Fla., to pay more than $4 million in civil monetary penalties for issuing false account statements to customers in an off-exchange foreign currency (forex) fraud.

The default order stems from a CFTC complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on July 13, 2010 (see CFTC News Release pr5852-10, July 14, 2010). The court’s default judgment order finds that Rosario and de Sousa solicited at least $535,000 from four customers to trade forex contracts through FXP and falsely represented that, since 2002, FXP had annual forex trading profits of 21 percent to 85 percent with no losing years. However, FXP did not exist before 2004, according to the default order. Furthermore, the order finds that Rosario and de Sousa sent customers false monthly account statements, showing monthly profits from 2005 through 2008; however, the defendants’ forex trading resulted in monthly losses in 31 of 40 months during that period.

At the same time the CFTC complaint was filed, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested de Sousa and Rosario based on criminal charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

The default order requires Rosario, de Sousa and FXP to jointly and severally pay a civil monetary penalty of $4,080,000, permanently bans them from trading on markets subject to the CFTC’s jurisdiction or registering with the CFTC and prohibits them from violating the fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act.

The CFTC appreciates the assistance of both the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office in Miami.

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Matthew Elkan, Eugenia Vroustouris, Daniel Jordan, Michael Loconte, Rick Glaser and Richard B. Wagner.

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Last Updated: December 7, 2010