The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a formal complaint on July 7 against Franklin investor Trevor Vernon, who has been under investigation since at least March. The full complaint is accessible through CFTC.gov.
Vernon’s clients received notice on March 3 that he and his businesses were under investigation by the CFTC and that the fund Argent Capital Partners LP, in which their money had been invested, had dried up. In the intervening months, multiple Argent clients reported having been contacted and interviewed by the Franklin Police Department, N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation and CFTC concerning Vernon and the type of business conducted by Argent.
The CFTC’s complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, says Vernon and his businesses “fraudulently solicited and accepted over $14 million from at least 60 individuals and entities … to invest in a commodity pool called Argent Capital Partners, LP.” The complaint later says Vernon solicited at least $14.8 million.
The 24-page complaint says defendants (Vernon and his companies) lied to clients about the fund and his credentials, saying “these misrepresentations included that Vernon was a successful trader and the Fund was extraordinarily profitable when in fact Vernon’s trading … resulted in consistent and catastrophic losses.” The complaint also says Vernon used participant funds to pay other participants “in the nature of a Ponzi scheme in order to hide the Fund’s losses and conceal the Defendants’ fraud.” The complaint says Vernon made “false or misleading statements to the Commission” during the investigation.
The Commodity Exchange Act requires Commodity Pool Operators like Vernon's business Argent Capital Management (ACM) to be registered with the CFTC, which ACM was not. It also requires the “associated person” of the pool to be registered, which Vernon was not during the period of his alleged misconduct. Vernon was registered as an associated person of Argent Capital Trading LLC from February 2017 to May 2020, but “has never been registered with the CFTC in any other capacity.” The CFTC is seeking the court to restrain the defendants by barring them from trading in the future, alongside civil monetary penalties for participants.
'Substantial and consistent losses'
The CFTC said defendants deposited around $4.2 million into a trading account, described by the complaint as “Broker 1,” between June 2022 and January 2025. It said, “Vernon’s trading was consistently unsuccessful, resulting in trading losses of approximately $3.9 million.” Broker 1 closed Vernon’s account after seeing suspicious activity. Vernon then moved to “Broker 2,” depositing $4.7 million between February 2025 and February 2026. Vernon was again unsuccessful, losing $4.7 million.
The complaint says defendants deposited at least $446,000 of participant funds into “Vernon’s personal accounts at Crypto Asset Exchanges 1 and 2.” At least $108,000 was lost. It says participants were never informed of these losses.
In addition, participants were given quarterly documents which “falsely represented the Fund was profitable almost every month and consistently outperformed both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.” Participants were presented with tax forms which falsely showed annual profits when “in fact no such profits were earned.”
“A reasonable investor would have understood from these documents and communications that Defendants’ management of Fund assets was extraordinarily profitable and that participants’ investments in the Fund were increasing in value,” the complaint says. “In fact, the purported gains and Fund participant balances reflected in these documents and communications were false … defendants lost millions of dollars of participant funds trading futures, options and crypto assets during the Relevant Period.”
Vernon or an attorney representing Vernon has been filing documents with the District Court as recently as July 9, but no arrest records associated with the complaint have been filed. The FBI, which has also been involved in this case, has not yet fulfilled a request from The Franklin Press for public information and documents on any investigations, charges or arrests related to Vernon or his companies.