The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), in conjunction with the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation, has fled criminal and civil enforcement actions against three banks and six individuals involved in commodities fraud and spoofing schemes.
The banks involved are Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS.
Division of Enforcement Director James McDonald, says: “Spoofing is a particularly pernicious example of bad actors seeking to manipulate the market through the abuse of technology. The technological developments that enabled electronic and algorithmic trading have created new opportunities in our markets.
“At the CFTC, we are committed to facilitating these market-enhancing developments. But at the same time, we recognise that these new developments also present new opportunities for bad actors. We are equally committed to identifying and punishing these bad actors.
The CFTC’s enforcement program is built around the twin goals of holding wrongdoers accountable and deterring future misconduct. We believe these goals are best achieved when we hold accountable not just companies, but also the individuals involved. As these cases show, we will work hard to identify and prosecute the individual traders who engage in spoofing, but we will also seek to find and hold accountable those who teach others how to spoof, who build the tools designed to spoof, or who otherwise aid and abet the wrongdoing. These cases should send a strong signal that we at the CFTC are committed to identifying individuals responsible for unlawful activity and holding them accountable.”
