March 20, 2013

Federal Court Orders Oregon-based System Capital, LLC and its President Joshua Wallace to Pay $840,000 for Solicitation Fraud and Making False Statements to the National Futures Association

In a related criminal action, Wallace pled guilty to criminal commodities fraud

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a default judgment and permanent injunction Order against Defendants System Capital, LLC (System Capital) and its founder and president, Joshua Wallace, both of Lake Oswego, Oregon. The Order requires System Capital and Wallace to each pay a $420,000 civil monetary penalty, imposes permanent trading and registration bans against them, and prohibits them from violating the Commodity Exchange Act, as charged.

The court’s Order stems from a CFTC Complaint filed on November 23, 2010, charging the defendants with solicitation fraud regarding the trading of E-Mini S&P 500 futures contracts and making false statements to the National Futures Association (NFA) (see CFTC Press Release 5940-10). The case is U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. System Capital, LLC, et al., Case No.10 Civ. 8850 (KBF).

The Order finds that the Defendants, among other things, falsely represented to prospective and actual clients that the Defendants had a successful history of trading futures contracts and that System Capital had assets of at least $29 million under management. As a result of these fraudulent solicitations, System Capital and Wallace retained at least 17 clients, managed approximately $3.5 million of client funds, and directed the trading of clients’ commodity futures accounts, the Order finds.

The Order also finds that Wallace, on behalf of System Capital and himself, knowingly provided false information and documents to the NFA. In April or May 2010, Wallace sent a Disclosure Document to the NFA containing false information. During an NFA audit in May 2010, Wallace repeatedly made false statements to NFA’s auditors regarding the Disclosure Document, System Capital’s promotional materials, a forged report purportedly authored by a major accounting firm regarding defendants’ trading history, and other documents used to solicit clients, according to the Order.

On November 27, 2012, Wallace pled guilty to criminal commodities fraud in connection with the fraudulent scheme described above and to other, unrelated charges (United States v. Joshua Wallace, No. S1 11 Cr. 124 (LTS) (S.D.N.Y.)). Sentencing in the criminal case is scheduled for April 18, 2013.

The CFTC thanks the NFA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for their assistance.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Mark A. Picard, Elizabeth C. Brennan, Philip Rix, Steven Ringer, Lenel Hickson, and Stephen J. Obie.

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Dennis Holden
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Last Updated: March 20, 2013