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Again and again, UD has told you…

beware the B-School boys.

 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil lawsuit against two people, including a Texas A&M University professor, and two companies in an alleged multimillion-dollar foreign-exchange fraud scheme starting in 2006.

U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake froze the defendants’ assets and allowed the commodities trading regulator to seize records.

Charged was Robert D. Watson, an executive professor in the Finance Department, Houston lawyer and accountant Daniel J. Petroski and two companies, PrivateFX Global One Ltd. and 36 Holdings Ltd. The CFTC accused the two men of urging potential investors to purchase shares in PrivateFX Global One by touting their supposed quarterly trading returns of 6% to 10% from January 2000 through June 30, 2006.

About 60 investors purchased $19.5 million in Global One shares since it began operations in 2006, according to the CFTC. The defendants reported returns of 1.5% to 3% a month and claimed to never have had a losing month, the agency noted.

A university spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

According to the complaint, the defendants provided the CFTC with falsified account statements showing alleged profitable trades at an international brokerage firm from the start of this year through April totaling $7.5 million in the trading account of 36 Holdings, of which $2.1 million was allocated as Global One profit. The defendants also allegedly provided the CFTC with false Swiss bank statements for 36 Holdings…

The university might not be ready to comment, but it seems already to have air-brushed Watson from all finance department webpages. UD can’t find him anywhere.

Margaret Soltan, May 27, 2009 4:28PM
Posted in: headline of the day

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8 Responses to “Again and again, UD has told you…”

  1. Eric the Read Says:

    Come on UD– you’re the one usually complaining that universities that employ crooks don’t get rid of them on the faculty web servers fast enough. Complaining that A&M "air-brushed" Watson from the finance department web pages seems a bit like trying to have your cake and eat it too.

  2. RJO Says:

    Google cache to the rescue. Unlike everyone else there, he seems not to have an office address.

  3. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Not quite true, Eric the Read. I’ve always complained that universities do one of two wrong things: They either lazily leave the faculty member’s page up, even after he’s disgraced himself and they’ve let him go; or they air-brush without any explanation, Soviet style (that’s why I’ve used the term air-brush).

    I came down very hard on Yeshiva U., for instance, for simply under cover of night, right after the Madoff shit hit the fan, removing all traces of him without explanation.

    The correct thing, IMHO, is to put a note on the web page explaining that the faculty member is on leave, or indeed (as Yale did with one of its misbehaving business school faculty) a note explaining that the faculty member is under investigation.

  4. Tom Says:

    I’m not sure exactly what an executive professor is, but I suspect it’s something like an executive in residence. Probably not a tenure track person, but someone brought in for a temporary appointment for purposes of sharing their expertise from business with the faculty and students. YIKES!

  5. theprofessor Says:

    The culmination of my career will be when I become Executive Distinguished Professor of Pathognomy, Tom. The "Executive" part means "attend to my numerous and lucrative outside interests most of the time."

    Hmm. I better get some lucrative outside interests.

  6. Eric the Read Says:

    Fair enough, UD; perhaps I read your previous arguments a bit too breezily to pick up the nuance.

  7. Tom Says:

    Yes indeed, theprofessor. I would have to say that’s exactly what that means. These arrangements are often very low actual practical value to the students and faculty, but serve as an ego-stroke for the individual executive and a reputation-stroke to the school. Of course, if the executive is a felon-in-waiting, not so much benefit to the school I suppose…

  8. Van L. Hayhow Says:

    No matter how many times I read this, I am fascinated by the title, executive professor. I wonder, if a petitioned, if the school I am an adjunct at would give me the title "Executive Adjunct Professor."

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