U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Judge Milton I. Shadur entered a Consent Order settling CFTC charges against a Nevada corporation and its owner for engaging in fictitious single stock futures transactions and trading non-competitively on an electronic futures exchange in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act.

The CFTC Complaint charged that the corporation owner conducted a "money pass" scheme by illegally moving at least $390,000 from an account carried in the name of a Canadian law firm to his own corporation through a series of 1,248 prearranged, non-competitive trades using single stock futures contracts on a Chicago electronic futures exchange. The CFTC Complaint alleged that the disbarred owner of the Canadian law firm provided the corporation owner, as a former client, with his login credentials to enter trades for the law firm's account. The CFTC Complaint contended that the owner traded the two accounts almost exclusively against each other on the electronic exchange by "placing nearly simultaneous, matching orders and trading in eight illiquid single stock futures products, which virtually eliminated the possibility of trading with a different counterparty."

The Court Order required the corporation, along with its owner, to jointly pay a $250,000 civil monetary penalty. The Court also ordered trading, solicitation and registration bans against the owner for a period of 5 years. The CFTC noted that its litigation against the Canadian law firm and its owner is continuing.

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