CFTC Category Archives — Page 5 of 8 — Investor Lawyers Blog Published By Investment Fraud Attorneys

Money Manager Paul Greenwood Gets 10 Years in Prison for $1.3B Investment Fraud

Published on: December 4, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Commodity Future Trading Commission says that hedge fund Paul Greenwood has been sentenced to ten years behind bars. Greenwood, who was the general partner of WG Trading Co., pleaded guilty to numerous criminal charges, including securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, commodities fraud, and conspiracy in 2010.

Greenwood and fellow WG Trading manager Steven Walsh were indicted on charges that accused them of conspiring to bilk investor of $554 million in an investment scam that U.S. prosecutors say ran from 1996 through 2009. Greenwood admitted to “sort of” operating a Ponzi scam and spending a minimum of $75 million of investors’ funds to pay for his passion for museum-grade teddy bears and other lavish spending. The scheme purportedly cost investors somewhere between $800 million to $900 million.

U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who sentenced Greenwood, told him to forfeit another $83.5 million. He has until February 9, 2015 to report to prison. Prosecutors told the judge that Greenwood helped the government with its case. He also assisted a court-appointed receivership in finding around $900 million, which is nearly 90% of investor claims. As part of his plea deal, Greenwood said he would forfeit at least $331 million to the government.

Morgan Stanley to Pay a $280,000 Fine to CFTC for Records and Supervision Failures Involving SureInvestment and $35M Ponzi Scam

Published on: September 16, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, LLC (MS) has settled civil charges by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accusing the firm of records violations and inadequate supervision involving its know-your-customer procedures. Aside from a $280,000 fine, the broker-dealer will have to disgorge commissions from the subject accounts involved.

According to the regulator, Morgan Stanley did not diligently oversee its employees, officers, and agents when they opened firm accounts for a family of companies known as SureInvestment, which purportedly ran a hedge fund that was partially based in the British Virgin Islands-considered to be a risky jurisdiction. Because of this geographic circumstance, when the accounts were opened the firm should have subjected them to special observation pursuant to its procedures, including watching out for red flags indicating suspect activities.

The CFTC’s order, however, notes that even though there were a number of red flags in the account opening documents for SureInvestments, Morgan Stanley failed to identify them. Later, it was discovered that SureInvestment doesn’t even exist and that its owner, Benjamin Wilson, was conducting a $35 million Ponzi scam based in the U.K. (Wilson, who has pleaded to criminal charges brought by the Financial Conduct Authority, has been sentenced to time behind bars.)

CFTC Notifies Justice Department of Criminal Rate Rigging, Looks at Possible Swaps Loophole

Published on: September 9, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Commodities Trading Commission has notified the Department of Justice that there is evidence of criminal conduct related to the alleged manipulation of ISDAfix. The regulator had sent subpoenas to the biggest banks in the world in 2012 to find out if the benchmark, used to establish rates for trillions of dollars of financial products and track prices on interest-rate swaps, was rigged. The CFTC, however, can only file civil charges.

Benchmarks are integral to global finance. They help lenders determine what to charge borrowers and pension funds to figure out future obligations, among other uses. Regulators have been investigating claims that banks and brokers seeking to profit helped manipulate certain benchmarks, while investors lost out in the process.

Last week, the Alaska Electrical Pension Fund sued thirteen banks, including UBS (UBS), Citigroup (C), and Bank of America (BAC), and brokerage firm ICAP Plc (IAP) claiming they worked together to rig ISDAfix. UK securities regulators are also looking into the claims.

Regulator Headlines: SEC Commissioner Stein Wants Updated Capital Rules for Brokerage Firms, FINRA’s BrokerCheck Link Proposal Faces Opposition, & CFTC Appoints New Enforcement Head

Published on: June 12, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

SEC Commissioner Wants Big Broker-Dealers To Hold More Capital

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Kara M. Stein wants the regulator to modify its capital rules for large brokerage firms so that they would be required to hold more capital in the event of a funding crisis. Stein wants the regulation to better factor the risk involved in short-term funding markets on which brokers depend. She also would like the latter to protect against failures that could upset the financial system.

Right now, the SEC is looking at new funding rules for brokers and placing limits on leverage, not unlike what regulators require for banks. However, Stein believes that the agency’s current approach, which is to protect customers but without considering how to keep companies in operation, needs work. The SEC Commissioner believes that the agency’s capital rules for big brokers should be based on preventing the failure of “systemically significant” firms. Stein also wants the SEC to finally implement the rules that were called for by the 2010 Dodd Frank Ac, including those that would limit the risks involving swap contracts.

CTFC Issues Its First Whistleblower Award

Published on: May 30, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has given its first whistleblower award in the wake of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and its bounty program. The regulator awarded $240,000 to a person who voluntarily gave information that allowed the CFTC to file an enforcement action resulting in sanctions and a judgment of more than $1 million.

Under the Dodd-Frank bounty program, whistleblowers of successful claims may be entitled to 10-30% of what is recovered. Prior to this whistleblower award, the CFTC had denied 25 award claims because: the persons provided the original data prior to Dodd-Frank’s passage; they failed to submit necessary paperwork, they gave over the information because the CFTC asked for it and not voluntarily; or the information they provided did not compel the regulator to open or widen a probe or contribute much to any successful Commission matter.

According to business writer William D. Cohan in his article on Wall Street whistleblowers in FT Magazine, whistleblowing—especially on Wall Street—requires great courage. Many find that traders, bankers and executives who raise questions about securities fraud end up losing their job or find themselves the victim of some other type of retaliation.

R.P. Martin To Pay $2.2M in Libor Rigging

Published on: May 22, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority are fining R.P. Martin over $2 million for misconduct related to manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor). The brokerage firm will pay $1.2M to the CFTC and approximately $1M to the British regulator. The latter said the fine could have been bigger but the financial unit showed that it couldn’t afford to pay more.

Libor helps determine what the borrowing costs are for trillions of dollars in credit cards, loans, and mortgages. According to regulators, the British broker-dealer helped a UBS (UBS) trader manipulate Libor as it was tied to the yen. RP Martin is accused of making misleading recommendations to its own employees. The latter issued the submissions used to establish Libor.

In return for RP Martin’s help, its brokers are said to have accepted over $400,000 in payments through wash trades that were actually just to give commissions to the brokerage firm. RP Martin’s brokers are also accused of turning in cash bids that weren’t real so that this would affect the yen Libor while benefitting the trader from UBS.

CFTC News: Chairman Gensler Steps Down, New Co-COOs Are Appointed, & the Agency Revokes Commodity Trading Adviser’s Registration Over Fraud

Published on: January 11, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Gary Gensler has stepped down as the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Timothy G. Massad, an official from the US Treasury, is his successor.

A former Goldman Sachs (GS) trader and later also a Treasury Department official, Gensler became, according to Reuters, the regulator that Wall Street became most afraid of following the economic crisis. His tough reforms have gained him numerous admirers, as well as critics who believe that he hurt the markets.

During his 5-year tenure as head of the CFTC, the Commission finished 70% of the rules it was supposed to write—way more than any other US regulator. He also took the most stringent stance regarding rules to get swaps trading onto exchange-like platforms and just recently he brought through a plan mandating that foreign banks follow CFTC rules when dealing with US clients even though foreign regulators wanted otherwise.

Volcker Rule is Approved by SEC, FDIC, Federal Reserve, CFTC, and OCC

Published on: December 10, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Five regulatory agencies in the US have voted to approve the Volcker Rule. The measure establishes new hurdles for banks that engage in market timing and will limit compensation arrangements that previously provided incentive for high risk trading.

While the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation voted unanimously to approve the Volcker Rule, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved it in a 3-2 vote, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved it in a 3-1 vote, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s sole voting member also said yes. President Barack Obama praised the rule’s finalization. He believes it will improve accountability and create a safer financial system.

Named after ex-Federal Chairman Paul Volcker, the rule sets up guidelines that impose risk-taking limits for banks with federally insured deposits. It mandates that they show the way their hedging strategies are designed to function, as well as set up approval procedures for any diversions from these plans. Per the rule’s preamble, banks have to make sure hedges are geared to mitigate risks upon “inception” and this needs to be “based on analysis” regarding the appropriateness of strategies, hedging instruments, limits, techniques, as well as the correlation between the hedge and underlying risks.

SIFMA, ISDA, and IIB Sue CFTC Over Alleged Unlawful Rulemaking Regarding Cross-Border Rules, Swap Regulations

Published on: December 4, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, Institute of International Bankers, and Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. are suing the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission over rules that they believe are hurting its members’ businesses, which includes among the biggest broker-dealers in the world. The plaintiffs contend that the agency engaged in unlawful rulemaking involving CFTC Interpretive Guidance and Policy Statements about Compliance With Certain Swap Regulations and other cross-border matters. They want the CTFC’s reach in its overseas rules curtailed.

ISDA, SIFMA, and IIB, whose members include swaps dealers such as Deutsche Bank AG (DB), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and many others, want to vacate a number of rules having to due with cross-border application completely. According to Bloomberg.com, at least half the largest banks work with overseas clients in their swaps business. The CFTC approved the overseas swaps guidelines this summer, and last month, two staff opinions came out shedding more light on the breadth of the guidelines.

Now, the plaintiffs are contending that with these rules the CFTC illegally circumvented the Administrative Procedure Act and Commodity Exchange Act by saying its regulations were “guidance,” did not set up cost-benefit analysis even though the law mandated it, performed a rulemaking process that was flawed, and set up rules that contradict international cooperation and could hurt global markets.

CFTC in Action: Agency Adopts Rules on SIDCOs, Reissues Relief for Contemporaneous Swaps Documentation Requirements, & Its Chair Gensler Praises Swaps Markets

Published on: November 30, 2013 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

CFTC Adopts Systemically Important Designated Clearing Organization Rules

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has adopted its final rules regarding systemically important designated clearing organizations. The new SIDCO rules line up CFTC regulations to with the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures set up by the International Organization of Securities Commissions and the Bank for International Settlements.

Per the rules, SIDCOs can remain Qualifying Central Counterparties (QCCPs) for international bank capital standard purposes. The rules come with substantive requirements having to do with financial resources, governance, system safeguards, special default rules and procedures for shortfalls or losses that are not covered, disclosure requirements, risk management, efficiency, and recovery and wind-down procedures. The rules also tackle the procedures through which derivatives clearing organizations besides SIDCOs can choose to become subject to additional standards so they can also be considered QCCPs.