December 6, 2011

CFTC Charges San Diego Resident Charles Steven Goodie and His Company, CSG Commodity Services Group, with Commodity Pool Fraud

Defendants charged with fraudulent solicitation, misappropriation of customer funds, and false statements

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of an enforcement action charging Charles Steven Goodie and his company, CSG Commodity Service Group (CSG), both of San Diego, Calif., with fraudulently operating a commodity futures pool and with registration and disclosure violations.

The CFTC civil complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, San Diego Division, alleges that, from in or about May 2008 to March 2011, Goodie and CSG fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $494,000 from at least 15 individuals to invest in a commodity pool trading futures contracts in silver, copper, natural gas, and oil.

Rather than trade the funds as promised, defendants allegedly misappropriated participants’ funds and provided at least some participants with false account statements claiming that participants’ funds were profitably traded. However, defendants allegedly never traded the contracts as represented, and the defendants’ limited amount of trading resulted in net losses.

In February 2011, Goodie allegedly confessed to some pool participants that he had spent the vast majority of pool participants’ funds for his personal expenses. According to the complaint, despite subsequent promises to repay pool participants, the defendants have not done so.

In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks the return of ill-gotten gains, restitution to defrauded customers, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this action are Matthew Elkan, Michael Loconte, Daniel Jordan, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner.

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Last Updated: December 6, 2011