SEC v. New Futures Trading International Corporation and Henry Roche, Case No. 11-CV-532-JL (D. NH.) On May 24, 2012 the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire entered final judgments by default against New Futures Trading International Corporation and Henry Roche, who directed New Futures in a Ponzi scheme.  According to the SEC, since December 2010, Roche raised more than $1.3 million from 14 investors in nine states by promising a 200% return within 14 months.  Roche told some of his investors the funds would be invested in bonds, Treasury notes, and/or 10-year Treasury note futures contracts, while telling other investors the funds would be directly invested into New Futures, which purportedly was an on-line futures day-trading business Roche operated from Canada.  Instead of investing money received from investors, Roche used approximately $937,000 to make Ponzi “interest” payments to investors to entities Roche previously controlled. Further.  Roche also misappropriated another $359,000 to support his ventures in horse breeding.  When the SEC filed the case in November 2011, the court issued a temporary restraining order (which later became a preliminary injunction), and froze the assets and investment ventures of New Futures and Roche.

The court’s final judgments impose permanent injunctions against future violations of Sections 5(a), 5(c), and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule10b-5 thereunder.  It orders each defendant to disgorge $1,242,972 plus prejudgment interest of $40,917.47.  Finally, it orders Roche and New Futures to pay civil monetary penalties of $150,000 each.