A Blair man working as a commodity trading adviser is accused of defrauding investors of nearly $800,000, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Omaha, the commission is seeking an injunction and restitution against Centurion Capital Management Inc. and Terry M. Svejda, who served as the company's president, secretary, treasurer and sole director.
Glenn Chernigoff, a trial attorney for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, alleges that beginning in 2012, Svejda solicited and received at least $790,050 from at least 27 people, many of whom were farmers, to invest in a commodity pool, Decadian, LLC.
Svejda told pool participants that he would use the funds to trade exchange-traded commodity future contracts. Instead, he allegedly misappropriated approximately 80 percent of the funds.
Only about $5,400 was returned to investors.
Svejda operated a commodity advisory subscription service. As part of this service, Svejda distributed newsletters to subscribers that provided advice on agricultural commodities. Many of the subscribers were farmers.
According to the complaint, in 2012, Svejda formed Centurion and Decadian to market a new commodity pool.
In August 2015, Svejda, on behalf of Centurion, began marketing Decadian as a commodity pool. In telephone conversations and emails with potential pool participants, Svejda stated that the pooled funds would be traded in agricultural commodity futures on a recognized commodity exchange, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Instead, Svejda transferred funds to a number of different bank accounts, including personal and business accounts, that were in his name.
“Svejda used $784,650 in misappropriated funds to trade futures in his personal trading account and to pay personal expenses and Centurion's corporate expenses, including, among other things, payments to a website developer and payments to a social media and online reputation management company,” the complaint said.
Svejda also failed to register Cenurion as a commodity pool operator.
The complaint alleges Svejda violated the Commodity Exchange Act and Regulations. The commission is seeking a permanent injunction to stop Centurion and Svjeda from trading as well as “full restitution to every person who sustained losses.”
