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 U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that trading giant Trafigura had agreed to pay a $55 million fine to settle charges of fraud and manipulation. The conduct at issue allegedly...more
Pre-hedging, or anticipatory hedging, is one of many risk management tools often used in principal-based OTC markets, such as commodities, foreign exchange (FX), or interest rate swap markets. It refers to trading conducted...more
The Seventh Circuit issued the third in a trilogy of opinions in October establishing the metes and bounds for criminal prosecutions of “spoofing”—a form of market manipulation, mostly in the commodities markets—that Congress...more
On July 13, 2023, U.S. prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Alexander Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of beleaguered Celsius Network LLC (“Celsius”) charging him with securities fraud, commodities fraud, and wire...more
In press releases issued in late June, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced its enforcement division’s creation of a task force on environmental fraud, and publicized its whistleblower office’s alert to...more
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Whistleblower Office took the unusual step of inviting market participants to look for and submit tips related to fraud, manipulation, and other forms of misconduct in...more
Last week, the CFTC solicited whistleblowers in connection with "potential [] fraud and manipulation" in "voluntary carbon markets," particularly in circumstances "in which high-quality carbon credits, also known as carbon...more
One week after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Whistleblower Office issued an alert seeking tips on potential fraud and manipulation in the carbon markets, the CFTC chairman announced that the second...more
On June 20, following a number of consultative papers, reports, committee hearings and public speeches by representatives of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), the staff of CFTC’s Division of Enforcement...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
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has two levels of jurisdiction under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”). First, there is an exclusive (or regulatory) jurisdiction over “derivatives” on “commodities,”...more
Glencore’s settlement with DOJ and the CFTC revealed a plethora of manipulative, deceptive and corrupt conduct, which spanned from at least 2007 to 2018 and occurred in the United States and global oil markets, including...more
In a long-anticipated and major enforcement action, the Justice Department and the Commodities and Futures Exchange Commission resolved a sprawling investigation with Glencore International A.G. and Glencore Ltd, a...more
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA) have outlined a broad enforcement agenda that aims to address recent commodities marketplace trends....more
In an effort to pursue unlawful trading in the derivatives markets, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") and U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") have in recent years engaged in unprecedented levels of...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced last week that it has obtained another admission from a trader of violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations ...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
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) indicated on April 24 that it is conducting a review of the $40-per-barrel plunge in the WTI crude price that occurred on April 20. The CFTC stated that it is conducting the...more
On 6 February 2020, Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”), spoke at the 19th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation in Europe. His speech,...more
Over the past several years, a number of transactions in the credit default swap (CDS) market have been scrutinized by the public, market participants and regulators. These transactions — which we have labeled as...more
Oil jumped for a second straight day, with futures near $70/barrel as fallout from the U.S.’s drone-strike assassination of Iran’s Qassem Soleimani continues to raise “the prospect of disruptions in the world’s most important...more
The CFTC’s Division of Enforcement (Division) released its Annual Report on November 25, 2019, summarizing the Division’s activities over the past year.1 In FY 2019, the CFTC filed 69 enforcement actions, down from 83 in FY...more
An important legal doctrine for companies that buy and sell in regulated markets is the “filed rate” doctrine, which limits legal challenges to rates determined by regulators such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission...more
Qatar and ExxonMobil are teaming up on a $10 billion natural gas investment plan in Texas and America’s growing status as an LNG exporting power....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