CFTC commences settlement discussions with head of Global FX Club
The start of settlement talks with the CFTC is announced shortly after Michael S. Wright pled guilty in a criminal case against him.
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has informed the New York Southern District Court that it had reached agreement to start settlement discussions with Michael S. Wright, head of Wright Time Capital Group LLC, doing business as Global FX Club.
The start of these discussions is announced shortly after Mr Wright pled guilty in the criminal matter to Count One of the Indictment against him (commodities fraud) pursuant to a written plea agreement with the United States government. Mr Wright was continued on bail and sentencing was scheduled for January 25, 2018.
The CFTC and Mr Wright have request to provide a further status update to the Court by December 6, 2017, and the Court has approved their request.
Count 1 of the Indictment charges the defendant with commodities fraud. According to the allegations, from at least January 2011 to June 2017, Mr Wright, while acting as a principal of Wright Time Capital Group LLC, aka Global FX Club, falsely represented to investors that their money was going to be used to trade in off-exchange foreign currency transactions, and falsely represented to investors the trading performance of his company. In addition, he is accused of having misappropriated a large portion of investor funds for his personal use and of having utilized investor funds in a Ponzi-like manner to make payments to other investors.
The criminal case against Mr Wright has led to the staying of the civil action against him brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in June. The CFTC charged Mr Wright and his companies with fraud, misappropriation, and issuing false account statements in connection with a pooled investment in Forex trading. The CFTC Complaint stated that from approximately August 2010 through the present, Defendants engaged in a fraudulent scheme to solicit more than $400,000 from at least 10 members of the public, promising to use pool participant funds for FX trading.
The civil action against Mr Wright is captioned U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Wright et al (1:17-cv-04722).
