U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Wilson

19 F. Supp. 3d 352, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67876, 2014 WL 1979866
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedMay 16, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. 12-11799-RGS
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 19 F. Supp. 3d 352 (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Wilson, 19 F. Supp. 3d 352, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67876, 2014 WL 1979866 (D. Mass. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

STEARNS, District Judge.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accuses defendants John B. Wilson and JBW Capital LLC (JBW), of civil violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The CFTC alleges that Wilson (and JBW, see § 2(a)(1)(B) of the CEA) violated 7 U.S.C. §§ 6m(l), 6b(a)(2)(C)(i)-(iii), 6b(a)(2)(A)-(C),1 and 6o(l)(A)-(B) by (1) failing to register with the CFTC as a commodity pool operator (CPO) while operating such a pool, (2) knowingly and willfully making misrepresentations of material fact to the pool investor-participants, and (3) using means of interstate commerce to defraud and deceive the participants. The CFTC seeks summary judgment, an order of permanent injunction, a permanent trading ban, and a permanent registration ban, against Wilson and JBW. The CFTC also seeks the payment of restitution and civil monetary penalties. Wilson and JBW, for their [355]*355part, argue that a material dispute over scienter precludes entry of summary judgment.2

BACKGROUND

JBW was registered as a Massachusetts limited liability company on July 23, 2007, and Wilson, a Massachusetts resident, was listed as its sole registered agent. See JBW Cert, of Org. (Dkt. # 55-6 at 10-11). The JBW Operating Agreement stated that JBW’s business purpose was to “invest in stocks, bonds, derivatives, commodity futures, financial futures, stock index futures, options on stocks, and options on futures.” See JBW Operating Agmt. (Dkt. # 55-5) ¶ 5. The Operating Agreement also stated that Wilson was the Manager of JBW and would be compensated for his services, and that, as Manager, he had “sole responsibility” over the investment and management of JBW’s assets. See id. ¶¶ 11(3) & 11(6). Neither Wilson nor JBW was ever registered with the CFTC as a CPO, nor did either file a notice with the National Futures Association (NFA) claiming to be exempt from CFTC registration.

In September of 2007, Wilson accepted contributions for JBW from several investors. The initial investors in JBW were family members and acquaintances of Wilson, including Stephen Wilson (Wilson’s brother), Peter Parsons, Thomas Trafton, Peter Trafton, and Jeyhsin Yao. In his affidavit in opposition to the CFTC’s motion for summary judgment, Wilson refers to these initial investors as the “founders” of JBW. See Wilson Aff. (Dkt. # 58-4) ¶ 2.

On September 10, 2007, Wilson opened a bank account for JBW at Sovereign Bank, and on September 12, 2007, he opened a trading account for JBW at MF Global, Inc. (MFG). Wilson deposited funds from JBW investors into the JBW bank account and then transferred the pooled funds to the MFG trading account. Wilson used the money to begin trading in commodity futures in October of 2007, and initially used an algorithm called the “Humphrey Program” to trade commodity futures.3

By December 31, 2007, JBW had thirteen pool participants. In March of 2008, JBW accepted funds from at least eight new pool participants. At some point, each of the investors in JBW was sent a “Certificate of Beneficial Interest” (CBI) purporting to show each investor’s pro rata percentage share of the pooled funds. During the life of the unregistered pool, Wilson obtained over $2,000,000 from twenty-five pool participants (excluding himself), had total net trading losses of approximately $1,800,000, and returned approximately $227,000 to the investors.

It is undisputed that in operating JBW, Wilson used the telephone and emails. [356]*356See Defs.’ Resp. to Stmt, of Facts (Dkt. # 59) ¶ 19. Wilson circulated periodic reports to JBW investors, including statements reporting JBWs Net Asset Value (NAV).

False and Misleading Statements

Wilson admitted to receiving daily and monthly statements of account from MFG, through which he conducted the trading on behalf of JBW. See Wilson Dep. 104:4-10, Sep. 22, 2011 (Dkt. #55-14) (Wilson 9/22/11 Dep.). Wilson also admitted to sending various emails to the pool participants containing information about the status of the pool, including updated NAV values. The following chart summarizes the emails sent by Wilson to pool participants prior to September of 2008.4

Date_NAV reported by Wilson Actual JBW NAV
As of 11/30/07_$159,460.00_$159,460.00
12/21/07_$180,071.00_$177,385.00
3/01/08_$566,076.13_$553,523.00
5/30/08$2,029,271.00$1,041,399.00

On September 1, 2008, JBW’s trading account at MFG reflected a net balance of approximately $2,558,347. On September 11, 2008, JBW experienced a net trading loss of approximately $1,045,632. Notwithstanding, on September 13, 2008, Wilson reported by email to JBW investors that “Today’s NAV” was $2,475,941. See Slowly Deck, Ex. 12 (Dkt. # 55-6 at 2). The actual NAV on September 13, 2008, was approximately $1,149,628. Wilson admits to circulating this email and it is undisputed that he knew that the $2,475,941 NAV figure was inaccurate. See Wilson Dep. 105:4-10, Nov. 20, 2013 (Dkt. # 55-19) (Wilson 11/20/13 Dep.); cf. Defs.’ Opp’n (Dkt. # 58) at 15 (listing a plethora of allegedly disputed facts regarding whether Wilson committed “any fraudulent act,” but failing to allege that Wilson did not know the actual NAV amount on September 13, 2008). On September 15 and 16, 2008, JBW experienced another net futures trading loss of over one million dollars. See Slowly Decl., Ex. 35 (Dkt. # 55-7).

On September 22, 2008, Wilson again emailed the JBW pool participants (with the exception of Daniel Mann, a pool participant who had recently agreed to invest), admitting the September 11, 2008 loss, and noting that he had already spoken to each of the email recipients personally. He wrote:

[I] ... want to again express my apologies for the remarkable loss I incurred. I also want to apologize for not reporting the $1M loss of 9/11 in my weekly report. My intention was not to deceive but to “roll” the loss into the next week and hopefully show some recovery. Clearly a recovery was not the case because I experienced the second major loss on the following Monday.
I will be sending a report later this month which will explain how I plan to recover from this. Each of you know this is my profession and only source of income. I will make a recovery and make every effort to make each investor whole.

Slowly Deck, Ex. 13 (Dkt. # 64-1) (emphasis added). Wilson acknowledged writing [357]*357this email. See Wilson 9/22/11 Dep. 220:21-222:13.

Prior to sending the September 22, 2008 email admitting the September 11 loss, Wilson welcomed Daniel Mann into JBW, emailing him on September 17, 2008, to confirm receipt of his $100,000 investment. Slowly Dec!., Ex. 57 (Dkt. # 55-10 at 6). Wilson admits that this email was sent after the September 11 losses, and that when he received the funds from Mann, he did not disclose the precipitous losses the fund had incurred during the previous few days. See Wilson 9/22/11 Dep. 220:4-16.

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19 F. Supp. 3d 352, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67876, 2014 WL 1979866, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-commodity-futures-trading-commission-v-wilson-mad-2014.