Federal Court Orders The Alista Group, LLC and Florida Man to Pay More Than $2.6 Million

​The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered an order granting the CFTC’s motion for entry of default judgment against defendant The Alista Group, LLC of Orlando, Florida and other locations, and Luis M. Pineda Palacios, a/k/a Luis Pineda of Orlando, Florida. 

The order finds that the defendants failed to answer the CFTC’s complaint which alleged that Alista and Pineda had engaged in precious metals fraud and illegal, off-exchange precious metals sales to retail customers.

The order requires Alista to pay $560,540.95 in restitution and a civil monetary penalty of $1,681,622.85. In addition, the order requires Pineda to pay restitution in the amount of $77,500, and a civil monetary penalty of $370,484.

 In separate, concurrently issued orders, the court also permanently enjoined Alista and Pineda from engaging in conduct that violates the Commodity Exchange Act, from registering with the CFTC, and from trading in any CFTC-regulated markets.