# Federal Court Orders Utah Residents Christopher D. Hales, Eric A. Richardson and their Company Bentley Equities, LLC to Pay More Than $2.7 Million in Sanctions for Fraud

> CFTC release 6599-13 · 2013-06-05 · **Fraud** · ENFORCEMENT

## Key facts

- **Release number:** 6599-13
- **Release date:** 2013-06-05
- **Type:** Fraud
- **Title:** Federal Court Orders Utah Residents Christopher D. Hales, Eric A. Richardson and their Company Bentley Equities, LLC to Pay More Than $2.7 Million in Sanctions for Fraud
- **Primary source:** https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/6599-13

## What this is

CFTC enforcement actions cover derivatives + commodities + crypto fraud cases. The Commission charges market participants under the Commodity Exchange Act for spoofing, manipulation, fraud, wash trades, registration violations, and pool-operator misconduct. Most actions settle with restitution + civil money penalty + a bar/suspension.


## Citation

> US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, press release 6599-13, "Federal Court Orders Utah Residents Christopher D. Hales, Eric A. Richardson and their Company Bentley Equities, LLC to Pay More Than $2.7 Million in Sanctions for Fraud", 2013-06-05. Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/cftc-action/6599-13.

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