Peachtree City resident Eldon A. Gresham has been ordered to appear in U.S. District Court in Newnan July 23 in connection with charges that he operated a multi-million dollar foreign currency (forex) Ponzi scheme said to have specifically targeted Christian investors. The order also pertains to relief defendants Werner Beiersdoerfer, Interveston Wines, LLC and Kirk Gresham.

The court issued the order to show cause for a preliminary injunction to be heard before Judge Jack Camp. The order also gives the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) an expedited discovery in the case.

The CFTC complaint, filed under seal on July 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleges that, from at least January 2004, Gresham solicited more than $15 million from more than 75 customers to trade off-exchange forex contracts. Gresham allegedly claimed to prospective customers that he was successful trading forex because the “Lord had blessed him.”

The complaint alleges that approximately $2 million, at most, of the more than $15 million that Gresham solicited from customers was deposited into Gresham’s forex trading accounts. Of the $2 million amount, more than $1.4 million was withdrawn by Gresham, CFTC investigators said. At least 14.4 million, therefore, was either misappropriated by Gresham or returned to his customers as part of the Ponzi scheme, according to the complaint.

The CFTC complaint noted that Gresham indicated to concerned customers that their funds were safe and would be returned when due. The CFTC alleges that these statements were lies because Gresham never had sufficient funds on hand to return all customers’ principal, much less purported returns on their investment.

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