Ex-CFTC Cop Pleads Guilty in Scam

A former U.S. attorney and top cop at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission pleaded guilty to defrauding consumers in telemarketing schemes that prosecutors estimate bilked consumers of $80 million. John A. Field III was among eight people who entered guilty pleas in a New Jersey federal court, the culmination of a government campaign to shut down so-called boiler room fraud. In the schemes that Field orchestrated, prosecutors said, consumers were offered nearly worthless stakes in investments including wireless cable systems and nonviolent television programming. As Field pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge, prosecutors disclosed that he had been assisting federal investigators in a nationwide undercover sting operation to snare other boiler room operators. Two weeks ago, he pleaded guilty to a racketeering and fraud charge in New Hampshire. He faces up to 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines on the charges. In the sting, Field and Marcus Dalton, whom prosecutors tagged as one of the country’s most prolific securities fraud artists, convinced former associates to sell investments in a fictitious foreign currency fund called UNEX 2000. Field served as U.S. attorney in Charleston, W.Va., between 1972 and 1977. He moved to the CFTC in 1977 and served as head of the enforcement until 1980.