Release: 5047-05
For Release: February 2, 2005

U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION AWARDED FINAL JUDGMENT IN FRAUD ACTION AGAINST INTERTRADE FOREX, INC. AND U.K. RESIDENT PRITESH PATEL

Defendants Ordered to Pay More Than $650,000 in Civil Penalty and Customer Restitution

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued an order and final default judgment imposing penalties against defendants InterTrade Forex and Pritesh Patel, both formerly of Florida and most recently of London, U.K., in a CFTC foreign currency (forex) futures fraud action the CFTC brought against them in January 2003 (see CFTC News Release 4753-03, February 11, 2003). The court’s order requires defendants to pay $434,097 to injured customers and to pay a civil monetary penalty of $240,000.

According to the order, the court found that InterTrade Forex and Patel sold illegal forex futures contracts to the retail public through an Internet website. The order further finds that, between March 2001 and December 2002, the InterTrade Forex website contained a historical performance chart for its managed forex accounts in which some, if not all, monthly returns listed were false. According to the findings in the order, InterTrade Forex, to support the fraudulent figures in the historical performance chart provided by Patel, sent its customers false account statements.
Previously, the court entered a consent order of permanent injunction and other equitable relief against InterTrade Forex managing director Stanley Craig Wakefield, ordering Wakefield to pay $175,778 in restitution and a $50,000 civil monetary penalty (see CFTC News Release 5010-04, October 18, 2004). The following CFTC Division of Enforcement staff were responsible for this action: Jason Gizzarelli, Karen Kenmotsu, and Gretchen Lowe.

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Media Contacts
Alan Sobba
(202) 418-5080
Dennis Holden
(202) 418-5088
Office of External Affairs

Staff Contact
Gretchen L. Lowe
Associate Director
CFTC Division of Enforcement
(202) 418-5379

Richard Wagner
Deputy Director
CFTC Division of Enforcement
(202) 418-5390

Related Document
Order