george angell

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...From approximately January 1996 through December 1999, Angell and others defrauded clients and prospective clients through material misrepresentations in promotional brochures for the 1995 version of the LSS Day Trading System (“LSS System”). The LSS System, a signal-based, computerized commodity futures trading system, was marketed to the public through several versions of direct-mail promotional brochures which touted, without any basis, the potential for large profits which could be realized by using the LSS System.

Angell and others designed the promotional brochures to mislead potential customers to believe that the LSS System performance record was based on actual trading when, in fact, the results were derived from hypothetical back-testing. The misrepresentation that the reported performance was solely based on actual trading was reinforced throughout the promotional brochures by frequent references to Angell’s purported successful personal day trading using the LSS System. The promotional brochures failed to include a hypothetical trading disclaimer that conformed to Commission Regulation 4.41(b).

Additionally, the promotional brochures falsely represented that the performance results had been independently audited and verified. In fact, the firm that conducted the auditing and testing was not at all “independent.” Rather, the firm was compensated, in part, by Angell on the basis of a percentage of the profits earned from the sale of the LSS System – a material fact that was never disclosed to potential customers...

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...promotional brochures led readers to conclude that the LSS System had generated $1,426,830 in actual day trading profits for Angell since 1987. The $1.4 million was touted as representing “real time performance verified on actual tick-data since the system was developed, not (over-optimized) hypothetical past history.” In fact, however, this performance claim was based solely on reports generated through back-testing conducted between 1992 and 1997 by a software developer retained by Angell...

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...Angell failed to disclose to prospective subscribers that the “independent” firm that had purportedly audited and verified the performance record was not, in fact, “independent.” That firm actually received as compensation 30 percent of the profits from the $3,400 fee paid by each subscriber for the LSS System. The compensation was for software development and back-testing services. Moreover, no auditing was ever performed...

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