CFTC Charges North Carolina Commodity Pool Operator and His Company with Fraud

WASHINGTON - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina against Trevor L. Vernon and his company Argent Capital Management LLC, a Delaware company based in Franklin, North Carolina.

According to the complaint, the defendants operated a fraudulent commodity pool that traded equity index futures contracts, options on equity index futures, and crypto assets, among other purported investments.

The complaint alleges, from at least March 2022 through February 2026, the defendants fraudulently solicited over $14 million from at least 60 participants to invest in a commodity pool operated by ACM.

The complaint further alleges the defendants falsely claimed Vernon was a successful trader and his commodity pool was extraordinarily profitable. In reality, his trading of participants' funds resulted in consistent and catastrophic losses. The complaint also alleges the defendants sent participants false performance results in monthly emails and quarterly updates showing ever-increasing account balances from purported gains that did not exist.

The defendants also allegedly misappropriated pool funds, in part by using money from new participants to make payments to existing participants in a Ponzi-like scheme to hide the pool's losses and conceal the fraud.

In addition, the complaint alleges Vernon knowingly made false statements during sworn testimony taken as part of the Commission's investigation, and the defendants violated multiple registration provisions under the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

The CFTC seeks restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the CEA and CFTC regulations, as charged.