Judge Orders Man to Pay Investors Back
A federal judge has ordered a Huntington Beach man to return $1.4 million that he allegedly stole from Southland investors in a bogus commodities trading scheme.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a civil complaint against David O. Naulin that he bilked eight investors in Orange and Los Angeles counties from December, 1989, to August of this year. During the final months of the alleged scheme, authorities said, Naulin was serving a one-year sentence in a halfway house after his 1989 conviction on securities fraud charges.
Naulin, the CFTC said, promised to invest people’s money in commodities but instead transferred most of it to his own bank account. Federal regulators say only about $200,000 remains.
Naulin allegedly sent phony financial statements to customers to give the appearance that their investments were profitable.
Last month, an administrative law judge barred Naulin from the commodities industry.
In the earlier case, Naulin was allowed to enter a halfway house after persuading a federal judge that a new business he had started would earn enough to pay back two investors, whom he was convicted of cheating out of $207,000.
Asst. U.S. Attorney James R. Asperger declined to comment on whether more criminal charges will be brought against Naulin as a result of the CFTC complaint.
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