February 24, 2011

CFTC Seeks to Revoke the Registrations of Texas-based M25 Investments, Inc. and M37 Investments, LLC

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it filed a Notice of Intent to Suspend, Revoke or Restrict the Registrations (Notice) of M25 Investments, Inc. (M25) and M37 Investments, LLC (M37), registered Commodity Trading Advisors of Waxahachie, Texas.

According to the CFTC’s Notice, filed on February 23, 2011, M25 and M37 are subject to disqualification from registration under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) based on a federal court’s entry of a permanent injunction order against them. The Notice specifically states that on October 25, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a consent order of permanent injunction against M25 and M37 in a CFTC anti-fraud action filed on September 29, 2009, CFTC v. M25 Investments., Inc., et al. (3-09-CV-1831 (N.D. Tex Sept. 29, 2009)) (see CFTC Press Releases 5927-10, October 27, 2010 and 5723-09, September 30, 2009, respectively).

The order finds that M25 and M37, among other violations, fraudulently solicited customers to trade leveraged off-exchange foreign currency (forex) and forex options, engaged in a common scheme to solicit customers and issued false account statements to customers reflecting profitable trading.

The order prohibits M25 and M37 from violating the CEA as charged and from seeking registration with the CFTC in any capacity. In addition, the court ordered M25 and M37, among other defendants, jointly and severally to pay restitution of $7,404,036.56. The order also requires M25 and M37 jointly and severally to pay $7.1 million in civil monetary penalties.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Timothy M. Kirby, Kevin K. Batteh, Kara Mucha, Gretchen L. Lowe and Phyllis J. Cela.

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
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Last Updated: February 24, 2011