Austin Forex Trader Ordered to Stop Fraudulent Offering

Texas Securities Commissioner John Morgan on March 30 entered an Emergency Cease and Desist Order requiring David Del Castillo of Austin to stop offering for sale investments in a foreign exchange trading operation.

Del Castillo promoted his supposed expertise in forex trading – promising investors a return of 3% in one week – in advertisements on craigslist, the Houston Chronicle website, and other online media. The ads direct viewers to Del Castillo’s company, International Forex Fund in Austin, according to the Cease and Desist Order.

What Del Castillo isn’t promoting is a string of personal financial problems and his apparent lack of any license to sell securities or trade in foreign currency.

According to the Order, Del Castillo is offering investments in the forex trading program and claiming that he has collected amounts from investors of between $5,000 and $15,000.

Del Castillo has never been registered in Texas as a dealer, agent, investment adviser, or investment adviser representative. Nor has he ever been registered with the National Futures Association to engage in foreign currency trading options.

Nonetheless, Del Castillo is advertising that he is a “Licensed Trader,” a “Licensed Foreign Currency Options Broker and Trading Agent,” and that he has been “[t]rading since 1998 in Forex interbank, and Philadelphia options exchange.” Del Castillo is failing to disclose the agency or office that issued his license, according to the Order.

Del Castillo filed at least four voluntary petitions for bankruptcy from 2004 to 2012 in U.S. District Court in the Western and Southern Districts of Texas.

In the same span of time, the Order says, properties in Jarrell, in Williamson County, and in Houston that were jointly owned by Del Castillo and another party were foreclosed on and sold due to defaults on promissory notes.

According to the Order, Del Castillo is also known as David Castillo, David M. Huaracha, and David Omar Huaracha.