May 14, 2012

CFTC Orders ACI Capital Group, L.L.C. and Alexandre P. Guimaraes to Pay Approximately $850,000 in Restitution and Penalty to Settle Forex Fraud Charges

Washington, DC — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today filed and simultaneously settled charges against Alexandre P. Guimaraes and his company, ACI Capital Group, L.L.C. (ACI), both of Irvine, Calif., for fraudulently soliciting customers to trade off-exchange foreign currency contracts (forex), issuing hundreds of false monthly account statements to customers to conceal trading losses, and misappropriating a portion of customer funds. Guimaraes also was charged with acting as an unregistered commodity trading advisor (CTA).

The CFTC order requires Guimaraes and ACI jointly and severally to pay $428,046.31 in restitution and a $420,000 civil monetary penalty. The order also imposes permanent trading and registration bans against the respondents.

The order finds that, from about February 2010 to approximately February 2011, Guimaraes and ACI fraudulently solicited more than $465,000 from approximately 29 individuals throughout California and Hawaii to trade forex by falsely representing Guimaraes’ experience trading forex and his purportedly consistently profitable returns.

However, beginning in April 2010 and continuing until February 2011, the respondents sustained substantial trading losses for ACI customers and failed to disclose the losses to those customers, according to the order. The respondents concealed the losses by issuing hundreds of false monthly account statements to ACI customers, showing that each customer was earning a profit every month, the order finds. In addition, Guimaraes misappropriated more than $44,000 of ACI customer funds, using the funds to pay for personal expenses, the order finds. Finally, the order finds that Guimaraes, on behalf of ACI, acted as a CTA for retail forex without registering with the Commission and that ACI is liable for his conduct.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this action are Amanda L. Harding, David S. Slovick, Michael Loconte, Erica Bodin, Kathleen M. Banar, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner.

NOTE: CFTC defendant ACI Capital Group, L.L.C., of Irvine, Calif., is not related to ACI Capital Group, LLC, which is registered in the state of Delaware and based in New York, NY.

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Last Updated: July 12, 2012