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Daren Palmer accused by CFTC of cheating at least 55 people in a Ponzi scheme with his Trigon Group, Inc through fraud by a commodity pool operator.

02/27/09 - KPVI News

It's official -- Daren Palmer of Idaho Falls is charged with a $40 million Ponzi scheme in East Idaho, and cheating at least 55 people.

The charges come down from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and also the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accuse Palmer of giving investor money to clients as a profit, and using much of money for himself.

In separate complaints from the CFTC and SEC, are accounts of testimony from Palmer one month ago to the day. In the sworn testimony, Palmer admitted to paying himself $35,000 a month, building a home, paying credit card bills and buying things like snowmobiles.

The complaint states that Palmer, President of Trigon Group, Inc, began trading on behalf of family and friends in 2000, and then other people. As recently as January 2007, he is said to have solicited $20 million from investors, in exchange for a 7 percent return, and verbally promised some people a 20 percent profit.

The S-E-C states that he told investors he had a riskless trading strategy.... All this without even being registered with the state.

Palmer admitted that from January 2008 to July 2008, he payed some investors $12 million, which was money from new investors.

From the documents, we learned that on December 15, 2008, the scheme officially fell apart when he admitted to investors he had lost their principal. The complaints didn't list victims but stated the majority are part of a close community of Palmer's friends and neighbors.

According to the CFTC, he committed fraud in connection with futures contracts, fraud by a commodity pool operator, and fraud by failing to register as a commodity pool operator.

Newschannel 6 contacted Palmer by his cell phone. We asked if he wished to apologize to the people who collectively have lost millions, especially after documents show he admitted to wrongdoing. He chose not to apologize at this time, and rather had no comment.

We talked one of Palmer's lawyers, Gina Tennen, who is based in California. She would not comment either. We spoke to one of Palmer's lawyers handling civil matters, who is based in Boise. He says Palmer is cooperating with the investigation, and says a preliminary injunction hearing is set for April.