Fraud in CFTC-Regulated Markets

September 29, 2021

Société Générale S.A. has been ordered to pay a $1.5 million civil monetary penalty for its failure to comply with certain swap dealer requirements, reporting inaccurate swap valuation data, and other failures.  The alleged failures occurred between 2013 and 2021 and involved failing to disclose pre-trade or mid-market marks, failing to accurately report certain swap valuation data, and failing to maintain adequate supervision over mid-market mark disclosures.  CFTC

September 28, 2021

Payward Ventures, Inc., d/b/a Kraken has been ordered to pay a $1.25 million civil monetary penalty for violating the Commodity Exchange Act.  According to the CFTC, for a year ending in July 2021, Kraken illegally offered commodity transactions in retail assets, despite failing to register as a futures commission merchant.  CFTC

September 28, 2021

Interactive Brokers LLC has been ordered to pay $1.75 million in civil monetary penalty and $82.57 million in restitution for violating CFTC Regulation 166.3 in failing to supervise the handling of customer accounts.  According to the CFTC, Interactive Brokers was aware of the possibility of negative oil futures prices but failed to prepare and configure its electronic trading system to display those prices or allow customers to place buy and sell orders with negative-priced limits.  Subsequently, customers suffered losses in excess of $82.57 million.  CFTC

September 15, 2021

Ronald Montano and his company, Montano Enterprises LLC, have been ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution and civil monetary penalty for using fraudulent solicitations in connection with binary options with commodity interests.  The solicitations misrepresented automated trading systems as successful, using fictitious trading results, fabricated customer testimonials, and falsified background information on the systems’ creators.  CFTC

August 25, 2021

Default judgment was entered against Silver Star FX, LLC d/b/a Silver Star Live, Silver Star Live Software LLC, and David Wayne Mayer based on findings that, acting as unregistered commodity trading advisors, they fraudulently solicited customers to open discretionary foreign exchange trading accounts that would purportedly use an automated trading software developed by Mayer.  Defendants misrepresented Mayer's qualifications and trading experience, as well as the trading system's performance history and expected profits.  Defendants were ordered to pay $3.9 million in restitution and $11.7 million in civil monetary penalties.  CFTC

August 23, 2021

Charles McAllister was ordered to pay $16.2 million in restitution to resolve claims arising from his operation of BullionDirect, Inc., which promised customers that it would purchase precious metals on their behalf, and deliver or store that metal. In fact, however, McCallister and BullionDirect did not purchase or store metal for customers, but instead misappropriated customer funds to pay back other customers, cover business expenses, and invest in other businesses.  Defendants sent false account statements to customers to conceal the fraud.  In 2019, McAllister was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  CFTC

August 13, 2021

Tyson Foods, Inc. will pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations that on nearly 600 dates between 2016 and 2021 the company held positions in Chicago Board of Trade soybean meal futures in excess of then-applicable federal position limits, and filed incorrect Statements of Cash Positions in Grain (Form 204) with the CFTC.  CFTC

August 10, 2021

The principles of the Global Trading Club, Mayco Alexis Maldonado Garcia, Cesar Castaneda, and Joel Castaneda Garcia, consented to an order requiring payments totaling $1.75 million in restitution and civil penalties.  The CFTC alleged that the individual falsely represented that GTC employed “master traders” in cryptocurrency transactions, promised returns to customers, and caused misleading trading statements to be posted online.  The order bars the individuals from registering with the CFTC and from trading commodity interests.  CFTC

August 10, 2021

Five companies that operate the BitMEX cryptocurrency platform will pay a total of $100 million to resolve claims that the platform operated a facility to trade or process swaps without being approved as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) or a Swap Execution Facility (SEF), operated as an unregistered futures commission merchant (FCM), and failed to implement anti-money laundering procedures.  HDR Global Trading Limited, 100x Holding Limited, ABS Global Trading Limited, Shine Effort Inc Limited, and HDR Global Services (Bermuda) Limited jointly operated BitMEX, which offered leveraged trading of cryptocurrency derivatives, including to customers in the U.S.  BitMEX acted as a counterparty in certain transactions, and accepted bitcoin to margin digital asset derivative transactions.  BitMEX allowed customers to access its platform and conduct derivative trading without verifying customer identity beyond the collection of an email address, and failed to report suspicious activity as required. As part of the settlement, BitMEX certified that it terminated its U.S. business operations, barred access to the platform by U.S. customers, and had undertaken verification procedures for existing customers.  $50 million of the $100 million penalty will be paid to the CFTC, with $30 million of the remainder paid immediately to FinCEN, and an additional $20 million to FinCEN suspended pending defendants’ undertaking of specific compliance procedures.  CFTC; FinCEN