CFTC v. Charles H. McAllister and BullionDirect (ponzi schemes, 2018)

Settled

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In April 2018 the CFTC sued Charles McAllister and his company BullionDirect over an alleged precious-metals fraud. On 18 August 2021 the Western District of Texas entered a consent order and closed the case against McAllister, requiring $16,186,212.56 in restitution and imposing permanent injunctions and trading and registration bans.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The complaint alleges that from August 2011 to July 2015 the defendants induced thousands of customers to send money for metal they did not fully buy, and misappropriated millions to repay other customers, cover business costs and fund other businesses. McAllister was charged with wire fraud and money laundering in a related criminal case.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes payments to earlier participants made from later participants' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The CFTC's August 2021 press release and the court filings show how the case ended for McAllister. The parties filed a joint motion for a consent order on 16 August 2021, and on 18 August the court approved it and entered a final judgment closing the case against him. The order permanently enjoins him from violating the Commodity Exchange Act, bars him from registering with the CFTC and from trading on CFTC-regulated markets, and requires restitution of $16,186,212.56, the same sum ordered in his criminal case. There he was convicted by a jury in October 2019 of wire fraud and related counts and received a 10-year prison term, which is recorded here as 120 months. The court documents name only McAllister; BullionDirect, described as defunct and bankrupt, is not addressed in them, and no civil monetary penalty appears. The press release places the court in the Southern District of Texas, while the docket stamps show the Western District; we followed the court documents. Restitution has no dedicated field in this record.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Ponzi schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2018-04-30 CFTC release published
2. 2021-08-18 Court enters consent order and final judgment against McAllister, closing the case
3. 2021-08-23 CFTC announces the order and $16.2 million restitution

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• CFTC release
• Final judgment (McAllister)
• Consent order (McAllister)
• CFTC press release 8416-21

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.