WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a consent order imposing permanent injunctive relief, civil monetary penalty, restitution, and equitable relief against Marcus Todd Brisco of Hawaii for his fraudulent solicitation and misappropriation of funds in connection with two commodity pools. 

The consent order requires Brisco to pay a $350,000 civil monetary penalty and $1.65 million restitution to victims of his fraudulent scheme. The order also imposes permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction prohibiting Brisco from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, as charged. 

The consent order stems from a CFTC complaint filed against eight defendants in January 2023. [See CFTC Press Release No. 8665-23]. The court previously entered judgments or consent orders against the other defendants, and this consent order against Brisco resolves this action against all defendants.

Case Background

The consent order finds Brisco operated two fraudulent commodity pools and solicited pool participants to deposit funds for trading leveraged or margined retail forex or retail commodity transactions but did not direct any of the funds to be traded as promised. From October 2020 to May 2022, Brisco operated his first commodity pool through his company Yas Castellum LLC (Yas 1). Brisco fraudulently solicited funds from at least 43 pool participants, who deposited more than $470,700 in the commodity pool. Rather than sending the funds to be traded, Brisco directed the funds to bank accounts controlled by another defendant, Tin Tran, and to a third-party entity.

In March 2022, the National Futures Association initiated an examination of Yas 1 and informed Brisco of serious concerns about his lack of oversight and control of investor funds. After Brisco repaid Yas 1’s pool participants, he told the NFA he was ceasing operations and leaving the financial services industry. However, one month later Brisco launched his second commodity pool through a new company, Yas Castellum Financial LLC (Yas 2), which he failed to register with the CFTC as required. Brisco fraudulently solicited funds from at least 66 pool participants who deposited over $1.9 million to participate in the Yas 2 commodity pool. Brisco misappropriated the participant funds by paying himself nonexistent trading profits and directing funds to another bank account controlled by Tran. In total, Brisco failed to repay more than $1.6 million to Yas 2’s pool participants.

The CFTC would like to thank the National Futures Association for its assistance with this matter.

The Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this matter are Alison B. Wilson, Kelly Folks, Sean Hennessy, Sarah Wastler, Maura Viehmeyer, Erica Bodin and Rick Glaser. 

CFTC’s Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory

The CFTC has issued several customer protection fraud advisories and articles, including the Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory, which provides information about a type of fraud involving individuals and firms, often unregistered, offering investments in commodity pools. The CFTC urges the public to verify a company’s registration at NFA BASIC before investing funds. Customers should be wary of providing funds to any unregistered entity.

Suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, should be reported to the Division of Enforcement via a toll-free hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382) or file a tip or complaint online or contact the CFTC Whistleblower Office. Whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected, paid from the CFTC Customer Protection Fund financed through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the CEA.