The US National Futures Association (NFA) has ordered Turing FX LLC and Rockhill Capital Management LLC, the Chicago, Ill.-based commodity operators, not to reapply for membership in the NFA or act as an NFA member principal per anytime in the future.
The NFA also ordered Christian Hillenbrand, the sole principal and associated person of both Turing and Rockhill, to withdraw and not reapply for NFA membership for seven years and to comply with other requirements and undertakings, including to pay a fine of $150,000 if he seeks to reapply for membership in the NFA in the future.
The Ruling, issued by the NFA’s Business Conduct Committee (BCC), is based on a Complaint issued by BCC and a settlement offer submitted by Turing, Rockhill and Hillenbrand in which they neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the Complaint.
The complaint alleged that, among other things, Turing and Rockhill allowed operating groups to make improper advances of assets to Turing and Rockhill and failed to deliver NFA-acceptable disclosure documents to operating group participants before accepting participant subscriptions .
The complaint also alleged that Turing, Rockhill and Hillenbrand failed to adhere to high commercial value standards and fair and equitable trade principles in their use of the pools’ assets.
The complaint further alleged that Rockhill and Hillenbrand provided NFA and participants in the Rockhill-managed group with false and misleading information about the group’s net asset value.
In its decision, the BCC found that Turing, Rockhill and Hillenbrand violated NFA Compliance Rule 2-4, that Turing and Rockhill violated NFA Compliance Rules 2-45 and 2-13, and that Rockhill and Hillenbrand violated Compliance Rule NFA 2-2(fa).