Weber Capital Management Charged in Forex Scheme
March 12, 2010
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a complaint on Thursday against Weber Capital Management (WCM) of Scottsdale, Ariz., charging Weber with operating a fraudulent off-exchange foreign exchange (forex) scheme.
The CFTC complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on March 9, alleges that Helmut H. Weber, d/b/a/ Weber Capital Management, through personal solicitations and his websites, www.weberfx.com, www.webercapitalmanagement.com and www.newtempsite.com, fraudulently solicited customers to invest at least $280,000 in forex trading.
He “promised large returns on small investments,” the complaint alleges. But contrary to Weber’s representations, only a fraction of customer funds were actually traded and the majority of the funds were misappropriated to pay for Weber’s lavish lifestyle, it says.
Weber, a German citizen, operated out of a series of homes that he rented in the Scottsdale areas, the complaint says.
Efforts to reach Weber at the home and business address listed in the complaint were unsuccessful.
The complaint alleges that, from at least June 2008 through January 2009, Weber falsely told customers that he was a successful and experienced forex trader, promised profits of three percent to 10 percent monthly on investments and claimed that WCM was registered with the National Futures Association and the CFTC.
Based on these false representations, many of his clients recommended Weber to their friends and family, the CFTC said in a release.
Weber continued to solicit prospective and existing clients even after the securities division of the Arizona Corporation Commission served a “cease and desist” order on him on September 12, 2008, according to the complaint.
The order required him to stop certain forex business activities and to close two of his websites.
In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks restitution of funds to defrauded customers, the repayment of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties and permanent trading and registration bans.
