CFTC News Release 4347-99

For Release: December 9, 1999

FLORIDA FEDERAL COURT GRANTS FINAL JUDGMENT BY DEFAULT AGAINST HARTFORD FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.; KERI L. STEWART; AND JOSEPH J. MARCHIANO IN CFTC ACTION CHARGING REGISTRATION, DISCLOSURE, AND REPORTING VIOLATIONS

Order Imposes Permanent Injunctions And Requires Defendants To Pay Civil Monetary Penalties

WASHINGTON -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that U. S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered a judgment and order granting final judgment by default, injunctive relief, and imposing civil monetary penalties against defendants Hartford Financial Group, Inc. (Hartford), Keri L. Stewart (Stewart), and Joseph J. Marchiano (Marchiano).

The order, signed November 23, 1999, permanently enjoins Hartford, Stewart, and Marchiano from violating registration, disclosure, and reporting provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations and requires each defendant to pay a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $330,000.

The order also requires Marchiano to pay an outstanding civil monetary penalty, plus accrued interest, imposed by a prior order of the Commission issued in 1996 in connection with another enforcement action. The court's order also enjoins defendants from violating, or aiding and abetting the violation of, the prior Commission order and from aiding and abetting any violation of any other order of the Commission.

The order stems from a CFTC enforcement action filed on June 1, 1998 against Marchiano, Hartford, Stewart, Glenn R. Taubman (Taubman) and Gary V. Valletta (Valletta). The three-count complaint alleged that Marchiano had been acting as an associated person (AP) and as a principal of Hartford, a registered introducing broker (IB) located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, without being registered. Marchiano, a respondent in an earlier Commission enforcement proceeding, In the Matter of American Futures Group, Inc., George J. Perk, Thomas G. Reeves and Joseph J. Marchiano, CFTC Docket No. 95-15, entered into a settlement in which he agreed to, among other things, withdrawal of his registration for a period of one year, imposition of a $10,000 civil monetary penalty to be paid on or before January 2, 1997, prohibition from acting as a principal of a registrant and imposition of conditions on any future registration he might obtain. As of the filing of the complaint, Marchiano had not paid the $10,000 civil monetary penalty and had further violated the prior Commission order by acting as an AP and as a principal of Hartford.

The complaint also charged Hartford with allowing Marchiano to act as an AP and as a principal of Hartford without being registered and without disclosing such information in its registration documents. Furthermore, the complaint charged the listed principals of Hartford – Stewart, Taubman, and Valletta – as controlling persons of Hartford and asserted that they aided and abetted Marchiano's registration violations and violations of the prior Commission order. (See CFTC News Release 4150-98, June 2, 1998.)

The CFTC's litigation in the case continues against the remaining defendants, Taubman and Valletta.

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