AlphaMetrix will pay a $2.8 million penalty and an additional $2.8 million in restitution to participants in its commodities trading pool for taking rebates that were to be reinvested into its pools and diverting the assets to AlphaMetrix’s parent company, as part of a settlement approved Tuesday by a federal court judge in Chicago.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow approved the settlement in a lawsuit filed in November 2013 against now-shuttered futures manager AlphaMetrix by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC claimed AlphaMetrix transferred rebates of funds from accounts held in its commodity pools into bank accounts of its corporate parent, AlphaMetrix Group.
In a statement on the CFTC’s website, the commission warned that clients might not recover money lost in the diversion because AlphaMetrix might not have enough assets to pay. AlphaMetrix in October 2013 warned that it was running short on cash and said it would close investment pools.
A civil action against AlphaMetrix filed by the company’s court-appointed receiver, Deborah Thorne, remains pending in U.S. District Court in Chicago, according to the CFTC.
