Purported Foreign Currency Trader Charged with Fabricating Documents in Response to SEC Subpoenas

HOUSTON—The Woodlands-area resident Robert David Watson has been arrested following the return of an indictment for obstructing justice, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today.

Watson, 49, was arrested without incident this morning after he turned himself in to FBI special agents at the FBI’s Houston office. He is charged in a six-count indictment, returned under seal June 23, 2010, with obstructing a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation. The indictment was unsealed this afternoon as he made his initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Nancy K. Johnson in Houston, at which time he was granted a $50,000 bond with a $5,000 deposit required and one of his parents as a co-signor. The court set his arraignment for July 7 at 10:00 a.m.

The indictment alleges Watson obstructed the SEC’s investigation of Global One, an entity Watson controlled and used to raise funds from investors. The SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office served subpoenas on Watson and others in April 2009, compelling production of documents and records related to Global One’s supposed foreign currency trading. According to the indictment, Watson fabricated account statements and trading records he produced to the SEC in an effort to obstruct, influence and impede the investigation. The SEC filed a civil complaint against Watson and others on May 21, 2009, in United States District Court in Houston.

Each count of the six count indictment carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 upon conviction.

Special agents from the FBI and the IRS, as well as staff from the SEC in Fort Worth conducted the investigation leading to the charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen L. Corso is prosecuting the case.

An indictment is a merely a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence.

A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.