A chief executive officer of an investment firm has been sentenced to two years in prison, followed by 18 months of home confinement, and ordered to forfeit approximately $1.6 million for engaging in a fraudulent “cherry-picking” scheme. Peter Kambolin, 48, a U.S.-Russian national from Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, and the CEO of Systematic Alpha Management LLC (SAM), manipulated futures trades to benefit himself at the expense of his clients.
Court documents reveal that between January 2019 and November 2021, Kambolin, who was a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator at the time, fraudulently allocated profits and losses from futures trades. This scheme was designed to unfairly favor his own accounts over those of his clients. Additionally, Kambolin falsely represented to clients that SAM’s trading strategies focused on cryptocurrency and foreign exchange futures contracts, while approximately half of the trading involved equity index futures contracts.
The fraudulent activities led to U.S. and international investors being deprived of profitable trades. Kambolin utilized the scheme’s proceeds for personal expenses, including rent for a beachfront apartment, and transferred funds to foreign bank accounts in Belarus and Dominica, controlled by his co-conspirator.
Kambolin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud on Oct. 11, 2023. The announcement of the sentencing was made by Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Shimon R. Richmond of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), who also investigated the case.