The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has charged Kuen Cheol Song, a citizen of Singapore, with engaging in fictitious transactions and trading non-competitively in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.
Song has never been registered with the CFTC.
On 6 April 2010, the same day the complaint was filed under seal in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the Honourable Naomi Reice Buchwald issued a restraining order freezing certain of defendant’s assets and prohibiting him from destroying documents and denying CFTC staff access to books and records.
The court set a hearing on the CFTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction on 19 April 2010.
The CFTC complaint alleges that since at least 28 August 2009, Song engaged in a series of unlawful commodity futures transactions involving Natural Gas and Hearing Oil futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Through this allegedly unlawful scheme, Song repeatedly made non-competitive, fictitious trades between his personal account and the hedge fund account of his employer, Singapore-based Woori Absolute Partners, where he is a director.
Since 28 August 2009, according to the complaint, Song’s personal account has profited by more than USD348,000 through this illegal scheme of non-competitive, fictitious trades, while Woori’s account has lost a corresponding amount.
In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks restitution, civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans and a permanent injunction against further violations of the federal commodities laws.