In August 2010, National Futures Association (NFA) announced that it had taken a Member Responsibility Action (MRA) and Associate Responsibility Action (ARA) against Spirit Investments, Inc. (Spirit) and its principal, Scott A. Bottolfson. Spirit is a Commodity Pool Operator NFA Member located in Encinitas, California.

NFA issued the MRA/ARA to protect customers of Bottolfson, Spirit, Kingship Fund (a pool operated by Spirit) and Increase Investments, Inc. (Increase), a Nevada entity owned by Bottolfson. Increase has no CFTC registration or NFA membership status. NFA received information that Bottolfson and Increase had obtained as much as $6 million from investors which Bottolfson and Increase represented to investors would be used to trade futures. This contradicted Bottolfson’s representation to NFA that Increase only traded physicals and real estate. Based on this contradictory information, NFA commenced an investigation of Bottolfson and the entities controlled by him.

The MRA/ARA alleged that Bottolfson provided false and misleading information to NFA throughout its investigation; that most, if not all, of the millions of dollars that Bottolfson and Increase collected from investors is reportedly unaccounted for; that Bottolfson has refused to cooperate with NFA by providing NFA with documents and information requested by NFA which would enable NFA to ascertain how many individuals invested with Bottolfson, how much they invested, and what has happened to their investments; and that Bottolfson likely misappropriated or otherwise mishandled investors’ funds.

The MRA/ARA prohibits Spirit and Bottolfson from soliciting or accepting any funds from customers or investors, commodity pools, other investment vehicles, or placing any trades on behalf of customers, commodity pools, or investors. Additionally, Spirit and Bottolfson are prohibited from disbursing or transferring any funds of customers, investors, commodity pools over which they exercise control, or participants in any such commodity pools, without prior approval from NFA.

The MRA/ARA will remain in effect until such time Spirit and Bottolfson demonstrate that they are in complete compliance with all NFA Requirements. Spirit and Bottolfson may request a prompt hearing before NFA’s Hearing Committee.

This information which is publicly available on NFA’s website has been provided by The White Law Group, LLC.

If you have questions about investments you made with Spirit Investments, the securities attorneys of The White Law Group may be able to help.  To speak with a securities attorney, please call the firm’s Chicago office at 312/238-9650.

The White Law Group, LLC is a national securities fraud, securities arbitration, investor protection, and securities regulation/compliance law firm with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Boca Raton, Florida.

For more information on The White Law Group, please visit our website at http://whitesecuritieslaw.com.