The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has entered an order requiring Jonathan A. Parker and his company QuantX Capital LLC of Marietta, Georgia, jointly and severally to pay a $680,000 civil monetary penalty and restitution totaling $341,500.
The CFTC also imposed a permanent trading and registration bans on Parker and QuantX for committing fraud and misappropriation in connection with operating a commodity pool that offered leveraged or margined off-exchange foreign currency transactions. Parker, a former CFTC registrant, is the CEO, President, and sole owner of QuantX and is responsible for all the company’s activities.
According to the order, from at least November 2010 through October 2015, Parker and QuantX fraudulently solicited and accepted at least $341,500 from at least eight individuals to make pooled investments in retail off-exchange forex transactions, but none of the funds were ever deposited into a pooled account or used for retail forex transactions.
Instead, the CFTC found that Parker and QuantX fraudulently misappropriated at least $341,500 of the funds for business and personal expenses. The order also finds that Parker and QuantX created and distributed account statements to investors that falsely claimed that they had engaged on behalf of investors in retail forex transactions that were profitable and made other material misrepresentations to investors.
In addition, QuantX acted as a Commodity Pool Operator and Parker acted as an Associated Person of QuantX without being registered with the CFTC as required, the order finds.
The CFTC cautions that orders requiring repayment of funds to victims may not result in the recovery of any money lost because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets.