Curtis Faith started Acceleration Capital with Yuri Plyam in 2003. Faith talked about that firm's beginning in July 2003:

...I approached Yuri Plyam at Castle Trading several weeks ago about the possibility of our partnering to form a series of commodities pools targeted at the investor with between $25K and $1 million.

Curtis Faith was a managing member of Acceleration Capital (website listed Curtis Faith's name through Feb 07; website now removed). Firm disclosures dated in 2003 stated:

Acceleration Capital, LLC has also been registered with the National Futures Association since 09/08/03. Curtis Faith and Yuri Plyam are both listed principals and registered Associated Persons of Acceleration Capital, LLC since 09/08/03 and associate members of the NFA. The Managing Members of the partnership are Curtis Michael Faith (Mr. Faith), and Yuri Plyam (Mr. Plyam). They will supervise all the Partnership's investment and administrative functions. Currently, the managing members have not invested in the pool, but reserve the right to do so in the future. Curtis M. Faith is a managing member of Acceleration Capital, LLC, an investment management company and the General Partner of the Partnership.

Hedge Fund Alert ran with the headline "Commodities Whiz Back in Business" on May 19, 2004. An excerpt:

Curtis Faith, a trader who cut his teeth under commodities luminary Richard Dennis, has started his own managed-futures fund. Faith launched his Acceleration Mercury 4X last month with a small amount of cash. He has just now started to market the vehicle and believes he can raise $100 million by year end - although he hasn't set a formal fund raising goal.

This excerpt was reported in HedgeWorld Daily News on May 20, 2004:

Mr. Faith manages the fund with Yuri Plyam, managing member of Acceleration Capital and president of Castle Trading Inc., Northridge, Calif. Mr. [Curtis] Faith also is...a managing member of Turtle Trading Software, according to the firm's web site. Mr. [Curtis] Faith previously worked with noted futures trader Richard Dennis and had taken a 15-year break from the business, he said.

This relationship was discussed online in 2004 (A screen shot backup of the post in question).

Acceleration Capital Investigated by Government

Acceleration Capital's performance history (EXCEL) showed significant losses from April 2004 until July 2005. Routine NFA examinations of Acceleration Capital started on August 22, 2005. Curtis Faith's NFA associate member status, associated person status and principal status were withdrawn August 23, 2005.

Acceleration Capital permanently surrendered registration with the CFTC via settlement in January 2007 for what the CFTC believed were violations of the Commodity Exchange Act.

• Acceleration Capital Investigation; 199 pages (Dec-07).
• CFTC Order Involving Acceleration Capital (PDF).
• Yuri Plyam Settlement. Read for full details.
• Acceleration Capital employee Toby Wayne Denniston pays $250,000 civil penalty. Read Order (PDF).

Was this a scam like the Bernard Madoff con? Perhaps, it was not exactly a Madoff con, but clearly the clients of this firm were led down a dead end with substantial losses.

Curtis Faith Background

Curtis Faith background documents.

The only objective accounting regarding Faith is found in "The Complete TurtleTrader" (Chapter 12 specifically and Afterword). Consider a video from Michael Covel: