Release: 4864-03
For Release: November 13, 2003

FEDERAL COURT ORDERS OREGON RESIDENT TO GIVE UP FEES RECEIVED FROM OFFERING FRAUDULENT COMMODITIES INVESTMENT

Thomas E. Jones of Rainer, Oregon Required to Give Up $74,000

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that the United States District Court for the District of Utah has issued a consent order of permanent injunction requiring Oregon resident Thomas E. Jones to disgorge $74,000 he received for soliciting investors for BIRMA, Ltd., which the CFTC has alleged to be a commodity pool operated in a fraudulent manner by other defendants in the lawsuit.

The consent order, entered on November 3, 2003, by the Honorable Ted Stewart, settles CFTC charges against Jones arising out of the CFTC’s complaint in CFTC v. BIRMA, Ltd., Stephen W. Brockbank and Carol J. Love, Civ. No. 2:00 CV 00622ST (see CFTC News Release 4437-00, August 22, 2000). The CFTC’s complaint, originally filed in August 2000, was amended in January 2003 to add Jones as a defendant for his role in soliciting investors for the BIRMA commodity pool (see CFTC News Release 4746-03, January 29, 2003).

Jones, according to the CFTC’s amended complaint, solicited and accepted $635,000 from eight investors to invest in the BIRMA commodity pool, and received approximately $74,000 in fees for these solicitations. The CFTC’s amended complaint charged Jones with acting as an unregistered commodity pool operator.

Jones neither admitted nor denied the CFTC’s allegations in the amended complaint or the findings in the consent order. The consent order requires Jones to give up the $74,000 in fees and permanently prohibits him from acting as an unregistered commodity pool operator, managing third party accounts or trading commodity futures for his own account. The case against the other defendants in the action continues.

The following CFTC Division of Enforcement staff were responsible for this case: Camille M. Arnold, Ava Gould, Rosemary Hollinger, and Scott Williamson.

Media Enforcement Contact:
Rosemary Hollinger, (312) 596-0520
Associate Director and Regional Counsel
CFTC Division of Enforcement

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