The news that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)has successfully fined Curtis Dalton the sum of $200,000 is a demonstration that such fraudsters can and will be apprehended and is another step towards shutting down the pernicious fraudulent trading carried out globally by unscrupulous brokers. Mr. Dalton, who dishonestly traded in binary options in foreign currencies on a binary options trading platform which was operated by an unregistered British Virgin Islands company situated in Cyprus, instead of trading, as legally required, on either a designated contract market, an exempt board of trade or a bona fide foreign board of trade,

Mr. Dalton accepted the civil penalty to avoid being brought before a court to account for his deceitful activities. The CFCT also banned him from ever trading on behalf of others or soliciting and accepting funds from others with the purpose of trading any commodity interests.

Whilst the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement James McDonald’s, comments urging members of the public to “do their homework” before trading with any firm are sound as a way of avoiding being defrauded. However, he may also like to consider applying more robust penalties to those individuals who are discovered to have been trading illegally. On the face of it, Mr. Dalton should be unable to operate within the controversial binary operations markets in the future.

Legal Law Limited’s financial fraud team is delighted that Mr. Dalton has been stopped in his tracks as establishing accountability, tracing the perpetrator through the serpentine routes that such people use to hide both themselves and their ill-gotten gains entails a gargantuan effort involving regulators, law enforcement agencies and multi-jurisdictional lawyers.