$200M a year fraud

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 20

$200M a year fraud

PA Washington Congressional investiga- - tors have estimated that Americans have lost at least. $2OO ' million' a year in fraudulent commodity t in-. vestment schemes. U' Senator William Roth, chairman of a sub-committee on investigations,', opened three days' of hearings by’ citing losses uncovered by panel staff during an extensive study launched in June last year. “The evidence that will be presented before the subcommittee this week will show that at least $2OO million a year is being soaked up by con artists operating under the guise of legitimate commodity investment firms,” Mr Roth said. He criticised the Government’s regulatory agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (C.F.T.C.), for failing to stop the fraudulent practices. “The facts uncovered in our investigation show a continuing pattern of criminal activity which has gone almost unfettered since the creation of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1975,” said Mr Roth, a Republican from Delaware.