The National Futures Association (NFA) has today concluded its investigations into the activities of Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) which operates under the name of The Barbashop LLC, and its principal, Ronald T. Barba.
The interestingly named company has agreed that within 30 days of the effective date of this decision, either The Barbashop or Mr. Barba (or both of them) shall register as a CPO and file a disclosure document with NFA for each pool they intend to operate.
Additionally, for as long as The Barbashop LLC is an NFA Member, it shall only operate as an NFA Member CPO, IB or FCM; and, for as long as Mr Barba is an NFA Associate, he shall only act as an Associated Person (AP) and/or principal of The Barbashop LLC, another CPO, and/or an lB or FCM.
The Barbashop LLC and Mr. Barba shall pay a fine of $50,000, for which they will be jointly and severally liable, due and payable as set forth in the Offer. Within 30 days of NFA’s approval of the disclosure document(s) for the pool(s) which The Barbashop LLC and/or Mr. Barba intend to operate, they shall terminate all powers of attorney over all existing managed customer accounts, except that they shall be permitted to continue to manage proprietary/fam ily accounts.
This decision arose from a complaint which the NFA issued against the firm and its principal on On June 30, 2014, charging The Barbashop LLC and Mr. Barba with using a disclosure document and promotional material which contained misleading information; failing to perform adequate reviews of the firm’s bunched order allocation procedures and customer accounts on a quarterly basis; failing to comply with the terms of the decisions in the 2009 and 2010 BCC cases; and failing to diligently supervise Barbashop’s commodity futures activities.
The Barbashop LLC was also charged with presenting performance of accounts, with materially different rates of return, on a composite basis; failing to maintain written confirmation of the nominal account size agreed to by customers; failing to provide disclosures for partially-funded accounts; failing to maintain required records of bunched orders; and failing to establish adequate bunched order procedures.
For the official announcement from the NFA, click here.