Article: Recent Swap Manipulation Cases

Article - Media, Publications

Recent Swap Manipulation Cases

Arent Fox, Les Jacobowitz, 24 February 2021

In recent years, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed two actions with facts so shocking the reader is forced to ask, ‘can this be how the industry really functions?’

The Complaints –

The most recent action was filed in February of 2021 in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) against a U.S. dollar swaps trader and managing director of a global investment bank for “engag[ing] in a scheme to deceive and to manipulate the price of U.S. dollar interest rate swap spreads…” 1 The facts of this case are very similar to those of a case filed a little more than a year ago – a bond issuance with a governmental issuer, and the pricing of a related swap through an interdealer broker firm. Both cases illustrate potential flagrant violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) and CFTC regulations.

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Article: CFTC Settles With Morgan Stanley & Mitsubishi, $1.4 & $0.4 Million Fines For Spoofing Gold & Silver

Article - Media

CFTC Settles With Morgan Stanley & Mitsubishi, $1.4 & $0.4 Million Fines For Spoofing Gold & Silver

Ottawa Bullion, 3 October 2019

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced that civil enforcement actions were filed and simultaneously settled against two trading firms and one bank for violating the Commodity Exchange Act’s (CEA) prohibition on spoofing (bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution). These cases were brought in connection with the Division of Enforcement’s Spoofing Task Force.

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