JONES DAY TALKS®: CFTC and DOJ Target Derivatives Trading Across Industries
FERC: A Discussion on its Mission, Market Manipulation Investigations, and Common Violations
On June 17, 2024, the CFTC's Division of Enforcement announced that it had reached a settlement with Trafigura Trading LLC ("Trafigura") over allegations that the firm manipulated oil derivatives prices while discouraging...more
In Short - The Situation: In parallel federal actions, the Department of Justice ("DOJ"), Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC"), and Federal Trade Commission ("FTC")...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commision (CFTC) is seeking to increase enforcement in the carbon market and is turning towards its highly successful whistleblower program to aid in the effort. In June 2023, the agency both...more
On May 24, 2023, Edward A. Imperatore, a partner in Morrison Foerster’s Investigations + White-Collar Defense group and former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, moderated a panel, entitled “Market...more
Mango Markets is a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to purchase and borrow cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency-related financial products. Mango Markets is run by the Mango Decentralized Autonomous...more
Multiple U.S. government agencies have pursued a stream of enforcement actions in the digital asset industry in recent years. In fiscal year 2022, 20% percent of the enforcement actions brought by the Commodity Futures...more
On October 21, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Commissioner Caroline D. Pham issued a concurring statement to the CFTC’s amended complaint originally filed on April 27, 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the...more
Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Chairman Gary Gensler received a letter last week seeking clarification on the SEC’s authority to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges from Senator Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Senate...more
Editors’ Note: With the advent of the Biden presidency, we invite you to join us as we examine important trends in white collar law and investigations. Our first entry takes a closer look at SEC enforcement. Up next: a review...more
On September 29, 2020, US authorities announced that they reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPMorgan Chase) to settle criminal charges related to two distinct years-long market manipulation schemes involving...more
A non-US-based investment and brokerage firm agreed to settle spoofing allegations by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by payment of a US $700,000 fine. In accepting this settlement, the CFTC emphasized the...more
On November 6, 2019, the Fraud Section of the Department of Justice with the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, and the CFTC, announced settlements of their spoofing and market manipulation...more
Uneconomic trading in regulated markets is a key focus of market regulators such as the DOJ, SEC, CFTC and FERC. Traders at times, for example, take different positions in select markets which can result in losses in one...more
Two weeks ago, a federal court of appeals sided with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ruling that a district court could not require the testimony of three commissioners and various staff to assess whether the agency...more
U.S. regulators, in particular the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), are intently pursuing market manipulation enforcement. The September 30 end of the 2019 fiscal year brought with it a flurry of press releases...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission determined not to appeal a decision of a federal court that a well-known proprietary trading firm and its principal did not engage in manipulation or attempted manipulation as charged...more
In January 2017, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma was proudly promising to create 1 million jobs in America—a heady promise but one not unthinkable given Alibaba’s massive scale. Fast forward 20 months and a growing Sino-American...more
Deutsche Bank—in keeping with its post-Cryan plans to shrink its US footprint—has been considering plans “in recent weeks to eliminate close to 10,000 jobs.” [It’s now looking like 7,000.] ...more
On May 9, 2017, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with seven additional Democratic Senators, sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the...more
Kraft Foods Seeks to Appeal Trial Court Ruling on CFTC Manipulation Theories: Kraft Foods Group, Inc. and Mondelez Global LLC requested permission from the federal court hearing the enforcement action by the Commodity Futures...more
Open market manipulation cases present difficult issues regarding what constitutes market manipulation. Regulators, such as the SEC, CFTC and FERC, tend to focus on the element of intent. Defendants frequently argue that the...more
During the holiday period the SEC filed three insider trading cases as administrative proceeding. Three actions were brought involving major Wall Street banks; one centered on “parking” allegations involving Morgan Stanley...more
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has proposed requiring the operators of centralized wholesale power markets to collect and provide to FERC a broad range of market participant data, including (i) each market...more
NYDFS Issues BitLicense Framework for Regulating Virtual Currency Firms - The New York State Department of Financial Services issued final regulations requiring a so-called “BitLicense” and establishing minimum...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