The Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused a Florida-based telemarketing company of violating Dodd-Frank by soliciting retail customers to engage in financed precious metals transactions. On Jan. 13, the agency filed a civil injunctive enforcement against Vertical Integration Group LLC, and its owner, Richard Morello, seeking civil monetary penalties, restitution and other remedies.
The CFTC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, alleges that from July 2011 to at least February 2013, the defendants solicited retail customers to buy physical precious metals in off-exchange leveraged transactions. Customers paid Vertical a portion of the purchase price for the metals, and Vertical financed the remainder of the purchase price, while charging the customers interest on the amount purportedly loaned to customers, the agency said.