On Sep. 20, CFTC fined Geneva $1.5mn for commodity spoofing.
- Geneva Trading USA charged with disruptive practices, via three employees.
Alleged Violations
- Order found all three unidentified traders used the same pattern of spoofing.
- Manually placed smaller orders on one side of market at or near best prices,
while placing larger order or series of orders, on opposite side of the market. - Large orders were often modified to avoid being filled, before were cancelled.
- Traded contracts included agricultural, energy, and precious metals markets.
- Commodities include gold, heating oil, RBOB gasoline, lean hogs, live cattle.
Sanctions
- Fined $1.5mn and cease and desist re violating prohibition against spoofing.
- Geneva’s early resolution of matter, helped to reduce civil monetary penalty.
- Order finds that Geneva cooperated in the investigation and remediated and
enhanced its compliance systems and polices related to manipulative trading.
