Florida man charged with $37 million Ponzi scheme

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man has been arrested on charges he ran a $37 million Ponzi scheme that guaranteed customers a monthly return of up to 5 percent on money invested in foreign exchange trading, authorities said on Thursday.

Beau Diamond, a 31-year-old resident of Sarasota, was arrested late Wednesday based on a complaint against him and his Diamond Ventures LLC trading firm from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a statement from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida said.

Since April 2006, the complaint said, Diamond solicited about $37 million from at least 200 clients "for the purported purpose of trading off-exchange foreign currency (forex) contracts."

Diamond suffered sizable losses through his trades in foreign currency, the complaint said. But he delivered, at least in part, on his "guaranteed monthly returns" of 2.75 percent to 5 percent by allegedly making fraudulent use of customers' deposits.

The CFTC complaint said Diamond, who was charged with operating a Ponzi scheme, offered commissions to clients who referred new customers to Diamond Ventures. He was being held pending a court hearing in Tampa on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)