Federal Court in California Orders Las Vegas Resident Gordon Driver and His Companies to Pay over $41 Million in Restitution and Penalties in Commodity Pool Ponzi Scheme (CFTC Release)

The CFTC announced that the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered a final judgment and permanent injunction against Gordon A. Driver, and his Nevada companies Axcess Automation LLC and Axcess Fund Management LLC.

• Driver fraudulently solicited over 100 participants in the US and Canada for over $14 million by telling pool participants that he had a successful software program for trading E-mini S&P futures, and that he had profitable returns averaging roughly 20% per month. However, the order finds that Driver traded only $3.7 million of the $14.3 million in pool funds he received and lost 94% of those funds; he misappropriated the remainder for personal and business expenses.
• Though Axcess Fund was registered as a CPO with the CFTC, Axcess Automation was not. The Court's final judgment order requires the defendants to pay restitution of over $9.5 million to defrauded pool investors, and $31.8 million in civil monetary penalty. The order also permanently prohibits the defendants from further violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

In related actions, the SEC and the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) filed a complaint against Driver and both cases are currently pending.

View release in full here (links externally to CFTC website).