Arrest warrant was issued on Monday for a currency broker Thomas Qualls

arrest warrant was issued on Monday for a currency broker who is currently on trial for commodities fraud in Brooklyn, N.Y., after he failed to show up in court for closing arguments in his case.U.S. District Judge Dora Lizette Irizarry approved a warrant for the arrest of Thomas Qualls after his lawyer said the defendant's sister told him Mr. Qualls had taken his belongings out of her Long Island home, where he was staying during the trial. "He's been cooperative up until now, so I'm concerned something happened to him," said Mr. Qualls' court-appointed lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma. He added that his office has been contacting local hospitals and police departments.Mr. Qualls, who pleaded not guilty, was free on a $250,000 bond secured by his parents' home in Florida, "so I can't imagine he would have run off under those circumstances," Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma said.Mr. Qualls' trial began in mid-October and is expected to conclude tomorrow, whether or not he shows up, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma said.Mr. Qualls, a Florida resident, is charged with bilking investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by having them invest in a Garden City, N.Y. firm he ran, which purported to trade in the spot foreign exchange market.
Mr. Qualls, who also is charged with obstructing an investigation of his firm by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and another government agency, allegedly created account statements reflecting currency trades purportedly conducted by his firm, but many of the trades never occurred, according to the indictment. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission got a default judgment against Mr. Qualls in a related civil case, his lawyer said.
Mr. Qualls had been a broker at Evergreen International Spot Trading Inc., where some managers were convicted of using deceptive and high-pressure sales tactics to solicit investors, and Mr. Qualls used a similar scheme when he set up his own firm, International Foreign Currency Inc., according to the indictment. Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which brought the charges, confirmed that an arrest warrant had been issued but declined to comment further.