Bronx Man Convicted in Oil-Futures Scam

HOUSTON (CN) — A New Yorker faces decades in prison after a Houston federal jury convicted him Wednesday of running a $1.4 million oil-futures Ponzi scam.

The jury deliberated for about three hours Wednesday before convicting Christopher Donrick Daley, 33, on all counts.

Daley was charged with mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud in a September 2015 indictment, alleging that from June 2010 to November 2011 he raised $1.4 million from at least 55 investors in a commodity pool he formed to trade oil-futures contracts.

Drillers contract to sell some of their crude oil futures at a set amount to refiners and chemical companies as a hedge against market volatility.

Commodity pool managers buy and sell oil-future contracts based on which way they think the price of crude will go.

During the two-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Daley told investors they would get 20 percent returns and his pool never had a losing month.

He also sent investors phony statements and paid returns with cash from new investors, according to his indictment and a July 2012 enforcement action the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought against him and his company TC Credit Service LLC dba Del-Mair Group LLC.

He spent at least $100,000 in pool funds on rent and personal loans, transferred another $195,000 to his personal bank accounts and never registered himself nor his companies with the futures trading commission. He traded the pool funds on his personal accounts that took losses every month, the government claims.

Daley was living in the Bronx, New York when the indictment came down and he turned himself in on Oct. 30, 2015 in New York.

He remained free on bond throughout 2016, but was taken into custody Wednesday after the jury convicted him.

His charges carry a maximum sentence of 80 years in federal prison. He must also forfeit $1.5 million to the government.

He will be sentenced Jan. 3, 2017.

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