ORLANDO (CN) - A federal judge ordered Alpha Trade Group and five of its agents to pay $4.2 million for defrauding investors in a foreign exchange scam.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued the Alpha Trade Group and five of its members or operators in September 2011, accusing them of defrauding investors in its commodity pools, Orsa Investment Group LLC and Online Marketing Solutions.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell this week ordered Alpha to pay $980,000; Jose Cecilio Martinez Beltran to pay $9809,000; Welinton Bautista Castillo to pay $980,000; Yehodiz Padua Valentin to pay $840,000; Maria Alvarez Gutierrez to pay $248,250; and Maria Asela Rodriguez to pay $147,238.11.
They "guaranteed" their suckers 12.5 percent to 25.5 percent monthly returns, "risk free," the CFTC said, then sent them fraudulent statements that showed the monthly returns as promised.
They spent most of the money to take trips to Spain, Switzerland and Panama, and none of it on commodities trades, according to the CFTC complaint.
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