The Securities and Exchange Commission announced an emergency asset freeze against an unregistered money manager and his companies in Plano, Texas, who are charged with defrauding investors in a foreign currency exchange trading scheme.
The forex market is a large and generally liquid financial market in which the risk of loss for individual investors can be substantial. The SEC has previously warned individual investors about the risks involved with forex trading.
The SEC alleges that Kevin G. White raised more than $7.1 million from investors by touting a sophisticated low-risk forex trading strategy yielding astronomical returns. He advertised his purported “25-year Wall Street career.” In reality, the forex trading has incurred losses of investor funds, and White actually spent only six years as a licensed securities professional in Houston before being barred by the New York Stock Exchange two decades ago. White also lied about his education. Meanwhile, White has siphoned away more than $1.7 million of investor money to pay personal expenses, finance expensive trips, and fund other unrelated and undisclosed businesses and investments.
“White and his companies brandished phony credentials and a can’t-miss trading strategy to lure investors into a web of deceit,” said David Woodcock, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office. “In reality, White was suffering forex trading losses and putting investor money to other uses.”
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced parallel charges against White and his companies.
According to the SEC’s complaint that was unsealed late yesterday in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, White raised investor money through two entities that he owns and controls: KGW Capital Management and Revelation Forex Fund. KGW Capital purports to be “one of the world’s leading private investment firms.”
The SEC alleges that White and his companies used websites, press releases, and presentations to prospective investors to solicit funds. White and his companies told investors that Revelation Forex was a $1 billion hedge fund that had achieved total returns of more than 393 percent since its January 2009 inception, and earned a compound annual rate of return of more than 36 percent. Marketing materials provided to prospective investors boasted that an initial investment of $250,000 in Revelation Forex in January 2009 would have grown to $983,111 by May 2013.
The SEC alleges that these claims were false. While White and KGW Capital tout a track record for the fund that began in January 2009, Revelation Forex did not actually receive investor funds or begin forex trading until September 2011. The fund has since incurred realized trading losses of more than $550,000 plus approximately $1,419,600 in unrealized losses through May 31, 2013. Meanwhile, bank records reveal that White has taken more than $1.7 million for himself, KGW Capital, and two of his other businesses, including approximately $248,600 in investor funds from Revelation Forex to fund an unrelated and undisclosed propane business and $97,000 on another business entitled KGW Real Estate. The SEC’s complaint names both of these companies as relief defendants for the purpose of seeking disgorgement of investor funds in their possession.
The court has granted the SEC’s request for an asset freeze and temporary restraining order against White, KGW Capital, Revelation Forex, and RFF GP LLC, which is the general partner of Revelation Forex. The court appointed Kelly Crawford as the receiver over these entities. A hearing has been scheduled for July 18, 2013, on the SEC’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that White, KGW Capital, Revelation Forex, and RFF violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. The SEC is seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest and financial penalties as well as preliminary and permanent injunctions.