Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Commodities Fraud

A former floor trader and member of the Chicago Board of Trade was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison for defrauding customers out of more than $2 million.

David G. Sklena, 51, of Skokie, was convicted last year of four counts of wire fraud, one count of commodities fraud and two counts of noncompetitive trading, according to a release from Patrick Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Sklena and co-defendant Edward C. Sarvey, of Lemont, were indicted in March 2009 on fraud charges and violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, the release said.

Sklena was charged with scheming to to deprive Sarvey's customers of the opportunity to make trading profits themselves.

Sarvey died in December 2009 while the case was pending.

According to the release, trial evidence showed that Sarvey was a dual trader, executing customer orders and trading for his own account. Sklena traded only for his own account.

"Sarvey sold 2,274 of the customers’ futures contracts to Sklena at a price that was much lower than the price that was actually trading at the time, and the trade was not executed openly and competitively as required by the Chicago Board of Trade and Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules," the release said.

Sklena was ordered by U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan to begin his 60-month sentence on Oct. 30. He was also ordered to pay more than $2 million in restitution to approximately 45 customers, including one fund that was a pool of commodity investors.