(HedgeCo.Net) The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed a civil enforcement action in the Southern District of New York against defendants Dominick Vincent Carducci and his company VOS Capital Management, LLC (VOS Capital), both of South Carolina. The defendants are charged with fraud and misappropriation in connection with the unlawful operation of a commodity pool that purported to trade leveraged or margined foreign currency (retail forex). The CFTC complaint alleges fraudulent solicitation of at least 30 commodity pool participants, as well as the misappropriation of over $1.1 million of pool funds that defendants used to reimburse certain participants and for Carducci’s personal use, such as international travel, luxury automobiles, and student loan debt.

Starting in at least August 2016, according to the complaint, the defendants fraudulently solicited and misappropriated money from at least 30 individuals for pooled investments in retail forex. Between August 2016 and September 2018, the defendants received at least $1.1 million from pool participants for investment in commodity pools that would purportedly trade forex. The defendants, however, never traded forex on behalf of pool participants, and concealed their fraud by issuing false account statements to the pool participants.