CFTC Charges Pastor In $2 Million Ponzi Scheme

Back in January, we reported that Episcopal Pastor Ron Satterfield had been arrested and charged by CFTC in a Forex ponzi scheme. Pastor Satterfield fleeced his flock out of more than $3.3 million. Now CFTC has nabbed another minister on similar charges.

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it obtained a federal court consent order imposing more than $2 million in restitution and civil monetary penalties on defendants Jeremiah C. Yancy (a.k.a. Jeremiah C. Glaub) of Atoka, Okla., and his company, Longbranch Group International LLC (a.k.a. Longbranch LLC) (Longbranch) of Houston, Texas. The CFTC charged Yancy and Longbranch with operating a million dollar foreign currency (forex) Ponzi scheme and misappropriating customer funds (see CFTC Press Release 5875-10, August 19, 2010).

The consent order, entered by the Honorable Vanessa Gilmore of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, requires the defendants jointly and severally to pay $692,000 in restitution and each to pay a $692,000 civil monetary penalty. The order also permanently bars the defendants from engaging in any commodity-related activity, including trading and applying for registration or claiming exemption from registration with the CFTC, and from violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act.

The order finds that, from July 2008 to August 2010, Yancy and Longbranch solicited 64 customers, including members of Yancy’s church in Idaho where he was a pastor, to open forex accounts. Defendants told prospective customers that they managed forex trading for non-profit organizations, including churches and orphanages, and solicited customers through various “fund-raising entities” to trade forex through them and to invest in their other financial schemes, according to the order. Defendants made misrepresentations to prospective customers through telephone conference calls set up by the fund-raising entities. Defendants’ misrepresentations were passed along to customers via emails from the entities, the order finds.