CFTC obtains $13M judgment over commodities fraud scheme

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on November 3, 2026, that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a default judgment against Walter Dunning Larrick III and Cambridge Financial Advisors LLC for their participation in a commodities fraud scheme.

The court found the defendants fraudulently solicited and misappropriated more than $3 million from participants.

The court found the defendants falsely said they would use participant funds to trade futures and options, including those involving natural gas, oil and gold. The defendants also made material misrepresentations and omissions about the profitability of commodity trading with them, and issued false account statements to conceal their misconduct.

Participant money was also used to make payments to existing participants in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme. Some of it paid Larrick's personal expenses and some was sent to offshore accounts in Costa Rica.

The defendants were ordered to pay a civil monetary penalty of $9,767,625 and restitution of $3,255,875. The judgment also permanently enjoined them from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission regulations, as charged, and imposed permanent trading and registration bans.

The default judgment resolves all claims in the CFTC's 2023 complaint.