Florida Asset Protection News

Court Orders Illinois Broker John M. Lofgren And Melrose Asset Management To Pay Over $5.5 Million To Defrauded Commodity Pool Participants

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that on August 30, 2004, Judge William J. Hibbler of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a consent order of permanent injunction against John M. Lofgren, formerly of Kenilworth, Illinois, and Melrose Asset Management of Chicago, Illinois. Lofgren was the chief executive officer of Melrose Asset Management, a registered commodity pool operator, and was registered in the futures industry as an associated person of Melrose Asset Management. The court’s action concludes a CFTC anti-fraud action against the defendants two years after it was filed on August 30, 2002 (see CFTC News Release 4695-02, September 4, 2002).

The CFTC complaint charged the defendants with misappropriating over $1.8 million from customers that had not been returned, issuing at least 200 false statements to pool participants, failing to distribute annual reports to pool participants and filing false annual reports with the CFTC. The defendants admitted the findings in the order.

The court’s consent settlement order permanently prohibits the defendants from violating the federal commodity laws, from trading commodity futures or options for themselves or others, and from applying for registration with the Commission in any capacity.

The court's order requires the defendants to pay restitution of over $1.8 million to pool participants and over $3.7 million in ill-gotten gains, for a total of over $5.5 million.

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	Did You Know?
	A Living Trust is an entity created for the purpose of holding and managing assets A Living Trust is an entity created for the purpose of holding and managing assets for the benefit of the creators of the Trust (the “Trustors”) during their lifetimes and then for the purpose of management and distribution of the assets to the beneficiaries designated by the Trustors. There are various reasons for creating Living Trusts: (a) To avoid probate administration on death of either Trustor. (b) To avoid a court supervised conservatorship in the event of lifetime disability of either Trustor. (c) To provide for the management and distribution of assets during continued administration of the Trust or upon its termination.