Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against Andrew M. Middlebrooks and his firm EIA All Weather Alpha Fund I Partners, LLC, a Delaware company, based in the Detroit, Michigan area. The complaint alleges Middlebrooks and his company engaged in a scheme that fraudulently solicited individuals in the U.S. and elsewhere to trade commodity interests, among other financial products, through a commodity pool called EIA All Weather Alpha Fund I, LP. The complaint further alleges Middlebrooks and his company solicited, accepted, and pooled millions of dollars from dozens of fund participants.

In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks full restitution to defrauded fund participants, disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), as charged.

Case Background

The complaint alleges that as early as mid-2017, Middlebrooks and his company began soliciting individuals to invest in the fund. In doing so, they repeatedly made numerous materially false and misleading statements and omissions in order to, among other things, lure new fund participants and convince existing fund participants to maintain or increase their contributions to the fund. As alleged, these misrepresentations and omissions included...

Read Full Story: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8576-22