A federal district court has ordered former Alpharetta resident Anthony Ramunno Jr. to pay a $5.8 million civil pentaly for operating an illegal commodity pool Ponzi scheme, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
More than 90 public investors lost more than $21 million, the CFTC reported today.
The district court also issued a similar order against Renaissance Asset Management LLC (Renaissance), the company through which Ramunno operated his scheme. That order requires the company to repay investors $21.2 million of the funds they had lost, imposes a civil monetary penalty of $5.8 million, and bans the company from trading commodity futures.
Both orders were entered by U.S. District Court Judge Jack T. Camp in the Northern District of Georgia on Feb. 13. Judge Camp had previously entered an order of permanent injunction against Ramunno on Jan. 23, 2008, in which the court permanently banned Ramunno from trading commodity futures and banned him from registration with the CFTC.
In its Feb. 13 order against Ramunno, the court noted that it is not ordering Ramunno to pay restitution in his individual capacity because Ramunno already is subject to an order requiring him to pay $21.2 million in criminal restitution entered in a parallel criminal proceeding, U.S. v. Ramunno, N.D. GA, Docket No. 1:07 CR 061.
The court's orders stem from a CFTC complaint filed on Jan. 24, 2007, which alleged, in part, that Ramunno and Renaissance issued false statements to investors, including annual reports that reflected substantial profits and false representations that the reports had been audited by an accounting firm.
Commenting on the two orders, Stephen J. Obie, the Acting Director of Enforcement for the CFTC, stated, "Here, the civil and criminal processes are working the way they are supposed to. Anthony Ramunno now is serving a long prison sentence imposed by a criminal court and is subject to orders to repay customers and to pay a substantial civil penalty to the government."
The CFTC thanked the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia for its assistance.
The following CFTC staff members are responsible for this case: William Janulis, Michael Tallarico, Rosemary Hollinger, Richard Wagner, Scott Williamson and Cynthia Cannon.
Labels: Alpharetta, Ponzi
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 5:49 PM
