IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- The Idaho Falls man accused of running a Ponzi scheme was in court on Monday.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it obtained more than $41.2 million in penalties in a federal court order against Daren L. Palmer and his company, Trigon Group LLC.
The order, issued by Judge Edward J. Lodge of the U.S. District Court for Idaho, requires Palmer to pay more than $20.6 of gains to the victims of the fraud and to pay a civil monetary penalty of more than $20.6 million, the commission said. The order also permanently bars Palmer from taking part in any commodity-related activity, including trading.
According to court documents, Palmer solicited and accepted more than $68 million from at least 55 pool participants since September 2000.
The order finds Palmer used the funds to pay himself a salary between $25,000 and $35,000 a month, totaling $5.8 million. Palmer also used the money to pay personal credit cards, build a $9 million home, pay more than $360,000 to charter planes and use more than $980,000 for business expenses, the court order said. Palmer also gave $2.7 million of the participant's funds to close family members, the order said.
According to the court documents, Palmer told the participants the accounts had increased to more than $60 million by June 2008. However, the order found that Palmer's trading accounts held only $1 million.
In January 2008, the order said, Palmer admitted to owing the participants between $35 million and $45 million, but told them he had lost or spent all of the funds and that he had been running a Ponzi scheme for many years.
Palmer was charged on Feb. 27, 2009 with solicitation fraud and misappropriation in operating a commodity pool Ponzi scheme.
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