CFTC Charges Unregistered Florida Commodity Pool Operator and Its Chief Executive Officer with Futures Fraud

Washington, D.C.- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida against Aureus Revenue Group LLC (Aureus), a Florida entity, and its owner and chief executive officer, Emir Jesus Matos Camargo (Matos) of Orlando, Florida. The complaint alleges they operated a fraudulent scheme in which they solicited at least $1.5 million from pool participants to invest in a commodity pool. They also misappropriated pool participant funds by paying Matos personal expenses and paying some pool participants using funds from other pool participants, in the manner of a Ponzi scheme.

In its continuing litigation against Aureus and Matos, the CFTC seeks disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, restitution, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, as charged.

Case Background

As alleged in the complaint, from approximately September 2019 through November 2022, Matos fraudulently solicited customers by representing Aureus could guarantee commodity pool returns of 1.5-3.75% each month. Aureus and Matos also sent prospective pool participants a fictitious license to falsely show the CFTC licensed Aureus as an investment fund. This fictitious license contained a counterfeit CFTC seal, a forged signature of a former CFTC Commissioner, and a fictitious license number. In exchange for their contributions, they gave pool participants "warranty checks" - checks drawn on Aureus' bank accounts for the full amount contributed. These warranty checks provided pool participants a false sense of security. In reality, the warranty checks were written on bank accounts with insufficient funds to honor the checks. Using these fraudulent representations, they solicited and received at least $1.5 million from at least 32 pool participants.

As alleged in the complaint, Aureus and Matos engaged in limited and unprofitable futures trading and instead misappropriated most of the money they received from pool participants. Some pool funds were misappropriated for Aureus' benefit to pay certain pool participants guaranteed monthly returns using funds from other pool participants, in the manner of a Ponzi scheme, rather than from the defendants' claimed trading profits. They used other misappropriated funds to pay for, among other things, Matos' rent, living and travel expenses, and personal taxes.

As further alleged in the complaint, Aureus failed to register with the CFTC as a commodity pool operator, and Matos failed to register with the CFTC as an associated person.

The Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this case are Elsie Robinson, Alan Simpson, Alison Auxter, Rachel Hayes, Christopher Reed, and Charles Marvine.

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CFTC's Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory

The CFTC has issued several customer protection Fraud Advisories and Articles, including the Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory, which warns customers about a type of fraud that involves individuals and firms, often unregistered, offering investments in commodity pools.

The CFTC strongly urges the public to verify a company's registration with the CFTC before committing funds. If unregistered, a customer should be wary of providing funds to that company. A company's registration status can be found using NFA BASIC.

Customers and other individuals can report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the Division of Enforcement via a toll-free hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382), file a tip or complaint online, or contact the Whistleblower Office. Whistleblowers may be eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected paid from the CFTC Customer Protection Fund financed through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the CEA.

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