NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A Philadelphia firm and its president have been charged by the government with fraud for fleecing investors in a commodity trading and hedge fund called Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management.

Authorities have recovered approximately $75 million in assets to date from the firm.

The firm and its president, Paul Eustace of Ontario, Canada, recruited new investors for the commodity fund, which he hawked as a hedge fund, by making up claims about performance and lying about the value of the fund's portfolio, according to a complaint filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

"The allegations are just that and we intend to defend the case," said Eustace's attorney, Jeremy Frey, of law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP in Philadelphia.

Eustace raised $230 million in total, including at least $680,000 from one member of the general public, the CFTC charged. Eustace once worked at renowned hedge fund Trout Trading Management, which is now Tewksbury Capital Management Ltd..

Eustace allegedly told this investor the value of his investment had increased to $1.18 million when in fact the firm never traded options or futures on the investor's behalf, according to the complaint. The CFTC charged Eustace with trying to lure another potential investor with a chart claiming that the fund had produced returns of 25.4 percent from October 2002 to March 2005, which the CFTC claims is not true.

The CFTC said Eustace told investors that PAAM could trade commodity futures and options and showed potential investors fake trading results that Eustace later claimed were based on hypothetical trading only. Eustace started taking in money in late 2002, according to the complaint.

Eustace also put up phony numbers on PAAM's Web site for the PAAM LP pool and for the Philadelphia Alternative Asset Fund, Ltd., an offshore pool, the complaint charges. The CFTC said Eustace told investors the offshore pool was trading profitably from February through May when in fact it sustained heavy losses of about $140 million.

A federal court in Pennsylvania slapped the firm and Eustace with a restraining order arising from the CFTC's complaint.

In recent years, the CFTC has busted a handful of commodity pools claiming to run hedge funds, including New Jersey firms Equity Financial Group LLC and Tech Traders Inc., and their operators, Vincent Firth and Robert Shimer, who bilked investors out of $50 million, according to the CFTC.

Last year the CFTC also charged Charles Harris and Tradewinds International LLC for fraud, claiming Harris lost or misappropriated $10 million of his investors' money and lied to them about the value of their investments.

Harris turned himself in after attempting to escape to an offshore locale, where he planned to earn his investors' money back, according to a tearful confession he recorded himself and mailed to investors that was viewed by the CFTC.