The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that Judge Paul G. Byron of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Orlando Division) entered a Default Final Judgment Order against Defendants Dante S. Giovannetti and his companies Emini Experts, LLC(Emini) and Capital Trading Concepts LLC (Capital Trading) for defrauding clients in connection with the operation of a commodity trading pool.
The court’s Order requires Giovannetti, Emini, and Capital Trading jointly to pay $663,975 to defrauded customers as restitution for their losses and jointly to pay a $1,991,926 civil monetary penalty. The Order also separately imposes jointly against Emini and Giovannetti an additional $140,000 civil monetary penalty. The court also ordered Relief Defendant Capital Futures LLC, another company owned by Giovannetti, to disgorge $143,358 of ill-gotten gains.
The Order permanently enjoins Defendants from engaging in any commodity-related activity and from registering with the CFTC. The Order arises from a CFTC Complaint filed on October 30, 2014.
Order’s Findings
The Order finds that the Defendants fraudulently solicited and misappropriated funds from commodity pool participants. The Order further finds that the Defendants concealed the fraud by issuing false account statements to investors regarding the profitability of the trading, improperly commingled investor funds, and failed to register as a commodity pool operator. The Order also finds that Giovannetti, Emini, and Capital Trading are liable as to those violations, and additionally finds that Giovannetti and Emini concealed material facts from the National Futures Association. The Order also finds that Capital Futures received at least $143,358 of investor funds.
Related Criminal Action
In a related criminal action entitled US v. Giovannetti, 15-cr-29 (M.D. Fla.), the court sentenced Giovannetti to prison for 63 months and ordered restitution in the same amounts as in the CFTC’s action. Any satisfaction of the criminal judgment will be credited against the restitution ordered.