Promoting inaccurate rates of return, grossly overstated assets under management, lying to the NFA…
The National Futures Asscoiation has taken an emergency enforcement action against Illinois firm Novo Trading LLC, which is a registered NFA member and commodity trading advisor (CTA) and Thomas Henry O’Connell Jr., a principal and associated person of Novo. The action has been taken to protect customers from the fraudulent and misleading solicitation material that is being used to draw them to the firm.
Novo Trading and Mr. O’Connell are presenting inaccurate rates of return on investment and have dramatically overstated the amount of assets under their management. On top of it during the investigation the company and its principal instead of cooperating with authorities, have mislead and lied to the NFA.
Novo Trading has posted promotional material on at least two websites – Autumn Gold and BarclayHedge that advertises the trading experience of Jerry Considine at Novo Trading LLC amounting to over 30 years and proceeds to claim that the company has over $56 million of assets under management. Mr. Considine is listed as principal of Novo, but he is not registered as an associated person.
When the NFA requested proof of performance to verify the information used in the promotional materials O’Connel and Considine could not provide any bank records, customer account statements or any other records. So far the NFA has not been able to determine the source of funds at Novo Trading’s bank account and is not ruling out the possibility that customers’ funds were misappropriated for personal gains of both individuals.
As a result from NFA’s action Novo, O’Connel, Considine and any current or former employees of the company are forbidden to accepting any funds from customers or new investors until the party in question provides proof to the regulator that they are in complete accordance with all NFA requirements.
For the full press release visit NFA’s website.
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.