Group Accused in $1.7-Million Fraud Case

AC Trading Group Inc. of Napa is being accused by government regulators of cheating investors out of $1.7 million and using some of the money to buy expensive cars and jewelry. U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney in San Francisco last week ordered the assets of the firm frozen after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a three-count complaint alleging commodity fraud. AC Trading, an affiliated limited partnership called AC Trading Group Fund, and two of its executives--Alexis Carles and Fred Eric DeJong--were prohibited from destroying notes, books and records while federal investigators seek a preliminary injunction. Carles and DeJong couldn’t be reached for comment, and no one answered the telephone at AC Trading. They aren’t represented by any attorney, said CFTC deputy regional counsel Louis V. Traeger in Los Angeles. CFTC investigators are still piecing the case together. At least a half-dozen investors around the Bay Area may be out money. AC Trading told investors in alleged phony account statements that futures trades had been “highly profitable,” the CFTC said, when in fact customers were posting “at least $1.7 million in trading losses.”