March 7, 2012

CFTC Charges Alabama Resident John David Stroud and His Companies with Commodity Pool Fraud and Misappropriation

Defendants allegedly stole more than $2.2 million from pool participants and lost more than $1.1 million trading

Federal court enters emergency order freezing defendants’ assets and protecting books and records

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it filed an enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama charging John David Stroud and his companies, Stroud Capital Management, LLC, TS Capital Partners, LLC, and TS Capital Management, LLC, all of Auburn, Ala., with fraud and misappropriation in operating two commodity pools.

On March 7, 2012, U.S. District Court Judge Myron H. Thompson entered an emergency restraining order freezing defendants’ assets. The order also prohibits the defendants from destroying books and records and denying CFTC staff access to such records. The judge set a hearing date for March 16, 2012.

The CFTC’s complaint, filed on March 5, 2012, charges that since at least February 2008, Stroud and his companies fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $4.8 million from at least 17 individuals and used the funds to trade commodity futures and off exchange foreign currency (forex) contracts in the Stroud Capital Fund, L.P. and the TS Capital Fund, L.P. commodity pools. When soliciting and accepting funds, Stroud allegedly misrepresented to prospective and actual pool participants that he was a successful commodity futures trader and that both pools were profitable. In reality, Stroud lost more than $1.1 million trading commodity futures and forex between August 2008 and October 2011, according to the complaint. Moreover, the defendants allegedly misappropriated more than $2.2 million of pool participant funds between at least April 2008 and the present for various personal expenses, including car payments, travel expenses, entertainment, and retail purchases.

To conceal their fraud, the defendants sent pool participants false account statements, tax records that misrepresented the profitability of their accounts, and at least one bank account statement reflecting substantial profits and failing to disclose Stroud’s significant trading losses and his misappropriation of participant funds, according to the complaint.

In a further effort to conceal the fraud, Stroud and TS Capital Management allegedly willfully made false representations to, and concealed information from, the National Futures Association (NFA) during two audits conducted in April and October 2011. In connection with the audits, TS Capital Management and Stroud misrepresented to the NFA that they traded only proprietary funds, concealed its trading of customer funds, and misrepresented the amount of funds it managed, according to the complaint.

After the defendants ran out of funds and their scheme collapsed, Stroud allegedly confessed to pool participants that he had “lied” and that “there was no money.”

In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks a return of ill-gotten gains, restitution to defrauded participants, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions against further violations of the federal commodities laws.

The CFTC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama, the NFA, and the Alabama Securities Commission.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this action are Stephanie Reinhart, Allison Passman, Joseph Patrick, Susan Gradman, Scott Williamson, Rosemary Hollinger, and Richard Wagner.

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Last Updated: March 7, 2012