CFTC charges ex-Chicago Board Options Exchange director with fraud

[June 29, 2016]  By Tom Polansek
 
 CHICAGO (Reuters) - A former Chicago Board Options Exchange director has been charged by U.S. regulators for misappropriating funds he solicited from relatives and colleagues for investment, court papers filed on Tuesday show.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Alvin Wilkinson fraudulently accepted at least $6.9 million from 30 people for trading from 1999 until now. Wilkinson served as a director of the options exchange, now owned by CBOE Holdings Inc, from around 2001 to 2004, the company's annual reports show.

The CFTC is seeking restitution for investors, a fine and permanent registration and trading bans on Wilkinson.

Wilkinson could not immediately be reached for comment. CBOE Holdings declined to comment.

In a civil complaint filed in U.S. court, the CFTC said Wilkinson and two of his investment vehicles fraudulently solicited the money to trade in a portfolio of financial instruments, including options traded at CBOE and CME Group Inc futures.

Wilkinson misappropriated at least $5.2 million, according to the complaint, which said that investors included professional associates from the options exchange.

The CFTC said Wilkinson and his entities accepted the money without having properly registering with the agency, and that he provided fraudulent statements to the National Futures Association, an industry regulator.

On June 2, the NFA suspended Wilkinson's membership and prohibited him from transferring any customer funds without the association's approval.

The case is United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission v Alvin Guy Wilkinson et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 16-cv-06734.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Richard Chang)

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