Longboat trading company charged with misappropriating millions

A financial trading company with an office on Longboat Key has been charged in federal court with operating a $75 million foreign currency exchange business that misappropriated more than $47 million — and lost the rest in the market.

Oasis International Group Limited, with offices at 444 Gulf of Mexico Drive on Longboat Key, was accused in federal

court of fraudulently soliciting and misappropriating money from more than 700 U.S. residents for a pooled investment in the foreign exchange market, known as “forex.”

According to the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission: “Between mid-April 2014 and the present, the defendants received approximately $75 million from pool participants for investment in two commodity pools—Oasis Global FX, Limited and Oasis Global FX, SA — that would purportedly trade in forex.  The defendants concealed their fraud by issuing false account statements to the pool participants.  The Complaint also names nine relief defendants, who are alleged to have received pool participant funds.''

The CFTC said $21 million of the $75 million total was invested in forex, and all of that was lost in market trading.  More than $47 million was spent on a variety of purchases.

Charged were: Oasis International Group, Limited; Oasis Management, LLC; Satellite Holdings Company; Michael J. DaCorta; Joseph S. Anile II; Raymond P. Montie, III; Francisco “Frank” L. Duran and John J. Haas.

A federal judge last week, before the federal enforcement action was unsealed, froze the assets of the defendants, permitting the CFTC to inspect financial records. U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Covington also appointed a temporary receiver to take control of corporate and personal assets of those charged in the case.

According to a CFTC release, investors were lured with the promise of guaranteed financial returns of at least 12% and other claims.

Among them:

• The Oasis pools of investor money returned 22% in 2017 and 21% in 2018
• The Oasis pools never had a losing month
• Money returned to investors was from profitable trading
• There was no risk of loss
• The only way foreign exchange trading could be a bad investment was "if all the banks in the world closed,'' the complaint claims Haas and DaCorta told potential investors on conference calls.

Some of the misappropriated money was paid to investors in a “Ponzi-like” arrangement, the CFTC said, that added up to $28,944,355.27

According to the filing in federal court, among the purchases made with misappropriated funds: offices in a complex at 444 Gulf of Mexico Drive, a Lakewood Ranch home, two other properties totaling $7,803,932.04.

Private plane charters, vacations, sports tickets, pet supplies, loans to family members, college tuition and tuition for college-study abroad programs, all totaled $6,981,839.06.

Non forex-related business expenses: $3,332,861.44

A Maserati and Land Rover were also purchased for DaCorta for a total of $111,463.82, according to the filing.

The complaint totals the misappropriated funds at $47,174,451.63,