From the Commodities Futures Trading Commission:
Federal Court Order Freezes Assets of Illinois Commodity Pool Operator Brookshire Raw Materials Management, LLC and its Canadian Principals Based on CFTC Charges of Misappropriating More Than $4.6 Million in a Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it obtained a federal court order freezing the assets and prohibiting the destruction of documents of a Barrington, Illinois commodity pool operator, Brookshire Raw Materials Management, LLC (BRM), and its principals John M. Marshall and Stephen Z. Adams, Brookshire Raw Materials Group, Inc. (BRMG) and Brookshire and Company, Ltd. (BCL), all of Toronto, Ontario, Canada…
As alleged in the CFTC’s complaint, between September 2006 and December 2008, Marshall, Adams, and BRM accepted millions of dollars from customers for investment in a commodity pool known as the Trust and operated as a Ponzi scheme. The Trust is governed by a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM), which, among other things, states that each fund in the commodity pool will invest customer proceeds in a portfolio of commodity futures and forward contracts designed to approximately replicate the investment methodology of corresponding indices developed and managed by BRMG. However, as alleged, Marshall and Adams, as agents and officers of BRM, BRMG, and BCL withdrew more than $5 million from the Trust account and wired those funds to bank accounts in Canada, mostly in the care of Marshall.
Five million bucks isn’t a pimple on an elephant’s arse nowadays, but a million here, a million there and pretty soon you’re talking about billions. Or is that trillions?
Stay tuned. Enjoy the fun.