The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed civil charges against Marc Perlman of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and his firm, iGlobal Strategic Management, LLC (iGlobal), for allegedly operating a commodity pool Ponzi scheme. According to the CFTC, Perlman and iGlobal defrauded at least 17 investors, many from the deaf community, out of at least $670,000.
In the Complaint, the CFTC alleges that Perlman and iGlobal, neither of whom has ever been registered with the CFTC, fraudulently solicited investments in a pooled investment vehicle purported to trade off-exchange foreign currency contracts for a profit. Though statements allegedly issued by Perlman and iGlobal led investors to believe the investments were profitable, the CFTC alleges the statements were a lie. In reality, according to the Complaint, more than half of the investors’ funds had been misappropriated and used to pay Ponzi-style profits to earlier investors and for Perlman’s personal purposes. The remainder (approximately $305,000) allegedly was lost in bad trades.
The CFTC also alleges that Perlman targeted members of the deaf community and used religion to obtain their trust.
“Perlman furthered his and iGlobal’s fraudulent scheme by playing upon the Christian faith of certain iGlobal investors, using claims about his own faith and references to scripture to obtain the trust of certain iGlobal investors,” wrote the CFTC in the Complaint.
The CFTC seeks a return of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, restitution to the defrauded investors, trading and registration bans against Perlman and iGlobal, and permanent injunctions. For additional information about the iGlobal and Marc Perlman case, click here.
