JONES DAY TALKS®: CFTC and DOJ Target Derivatives Trading Across Industries
FERC: A Discussion on its Mission, Market Manipulation Investigations, and Common Violations
“Spoofing,” or the practice of submitting buy or sell orders to trading platforms with the intent to withdraw them prior to execution, is considered fraud under the Seventh Circuit’s decision in United States v. Smith, issued...more
On June 17, 2024, the CFTC filed a consent order against Trafigura Trading LLC, requiring the company to pay a $55 million civil monetary penalty and implement remedial measures. The CFTC’s order details three violations of...more
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”), significantly expanded the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC” or “Commission”) anti-fraud and anti-manipulation statutory...more
On June 7, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted, pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), (i) new Rule 9j-1 to combat fraud, manipulation, and deception in connection with...more
"Record breaking" is how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) described its whistleblower program results in FY 2021, and it's not hard to see why. The agency continued to receive tips from all corners of the...more
A natural gas trader pleaded guilty in federal district court last week to conspiring to commit commodities fraud and wire fraud in an insider trading scheme over natural gas futures. His co-conspirator had pleaded guilty...more
Antitrust- Google Is in the Crosshairs of Two Multistate Antitrust Suits- •Two groups of AGs filed antitrust lawsuits against Google LLC (“Google”). •A group of seven Republican AGs, led by Texas AG Ken Paxton, sued...more
On October 23, 2019, Judge John Robert Blakey of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated the $16 million settlement consent order between the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission...more
2018 was an interesting year for market participants subject to the Commodity Exchange Act ("CEA"), with federal appellate courts issuing three noteworthy decisions involving claims under the CEA. The Commodity Futures...more
The Situation: Judge Richard Sullivan of the Southern District of New York ("SDNY") recently issued a post-trial decision in a market manipulation action brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") in 2013. ...more
An early look at the reaction from allies Canada, Mexico, and the EU to this week’s announcement from the White House that it was moving forward with steel and aluminum tariffs against these US trading partners....more
A federal jury in Brooklyn has found former HSBC Holdings exec Mark Johnson guilty on 9 counts of front-running that grew out of the DOJ’s investigation into forex manipulation at HSBC....more
In today's computer-driven world, trading firms use computer software to execute, at very high speed, large volumes of trades. Their trading strategies take advantage of minor discrepancies in the prices of securities or...more
On August 7, 2017, the Seventh Circuit upheld the conviction of Michael Coscia, founder of Panther Energy Trading LLC, for a market manipulation tactic known as “spoofing,” under Section 6c(a)(5)(C) and 13(a)(2) of the...more
On August 8, 2017, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit unanimously upheld the first-ever criminal conviction of a New Jersey futures trader for the manipulative trading practice known as...more
The Times gives us some insight into the opaque (but powerful) HNA Group—the Chinese entity that began with Hainan Airlines and has grown into a global investing and acquisition powerhouse that is now the largest shareholder...more
The FHLB Boston’s $5.9 billion MBS case against Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Credit Suisse, is back in Massachusetts state court—a result of the Supreme Court’s Lightfoot v. Cendant Mortgage case that held that Fannie Mae’s...more
RBS has agreed to pay $85 million to the CFTC to resolve allegations that its traders “manipulated the ISDAfix benchmark rate over a period of five years to benefit the bank’s derivatives positions”....more
Potentially abusive trading algorithms, such as algorithms that purportedly engage in “spoofing” or “layering” are the subject of considerable regulatory interest. However, in an interesting complaint filed on October 19,...more
On September 17, 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to expand the obligations of Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators...more
Asset managers should consider the practical implications of these recent developments. Signaling a new area of criminal and civil securities enforcement, federal regulators are flexing their newly acquired powers under...more
Regulatory Developments: SEC Chair Highlights Recent Accomplishments - In a June 4, 2015 speech, SEC Chair Mary Jo White highlighted recent activities of the SEC and identified work to be done in the near future....more
This week Senator Elizabeth Warren forwarded a 13 page letter to SEC Chair White regarding her performance in office. The letter highlighted what it calls a “significant gap” between the promises of Ms. White at the time she...more
In October 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission used enforcement powers it gained under the Dodd-Frank Act in an order finding that a major financial institution recklessly employed manipulative devices in trading...more