September 22, 2016

CFTC Charges Jamal Y. Vance and His Company All City Investments, LLC with Solicitation Fraud in Connection with Off-Exchange Foreign Currency Transactions and Failure to Register as a Commodity Trading Advisor

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Defendants Jamal Y. Vance and All City Investments, LLC (All City), charging Defendants with solicitation fraud in connection with off-exchange foreign currency (forex) transactions and with failure to register as Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) with the CFTC as required. Vance’s last known address is in Orlando, Florida, and All City has a principal place of business in Dallas, Texas.

According to the CFTC’s Complaint, Defendants solicited customers on their website to open and deposit funds into their own accounts with a brokerage services firm that provides an online forex trading platform, and to sign a limited power of attorney form, which designated All City as that customer’s agent and attorney-in-fact for the purpose of buying and selling margined forex transactions for the customer’s account.

The Complaint alleges that in order to fraudulently induce customers to have Defendants act as their CTA, Defendants’ website included a graph with an accompanying table and text that falsely and misleadingly showed “2,675.10% growth” from December 2013 through September 2015. It further falsely and/or misleadingly claimed that All City performed 444 trades during that timeframe broken down as follows: “Profit Trades: 442 (99.55%)” and “Loss Trades: 2 (0.45%).” Allegedly, the information on the trading graph, table, and text (the “Track Record”) was all false and/or misleading.

The Complaint further alleges that both Vance and All City acted as a CTA without registering as such with the CFTC as required; that Vance is liable for All City’s violations as its President, Secretary, Member and controlling person; and that All City is liable for Vance’s violations because Vance was acting for All City within the scope of his employment or office when he committed his violations.

In its continuing litigation against Defendants, the CFTC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, full restitution to defrauded customers, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction prohibiting the Defendants from committing future violations of the federal commodities laws, as charged.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this matter are Katie Rasor, Joseph Muoio (previously on detail from the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division), Judith Slowly, Christopher Giglio, Steven Ringer, Lenel Hickson, and Manal Sultan.

* * * * * *

CFTC’s Foreign Currency (Forex) Fraud Advisory

The CFTC has issued several customer protection Fraud Advisories that provide the warning signs of fraud, including the Foreign Currency Trading (Forex) Fraud Advisory, which states that the CFTC has witnessed a sharp rise in Forex trading scams in recent years and helps customers identify this potential fraud.

Customers can report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the CFTC Division of Enforcement via a Toll-Free Hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382) or file a tip or complaint online. 

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Last Updated: September 22, 2016