On September 14, 2018, the CFTC filed and settled 12 enforcement actions against multiple firms and individuals regarding registration, position limits, recordkeeping, supervisory and reporting violations.
Forex and Binary Options
In separate actions, eight unregistered entities and individuals settled CFTC charges of offering foreign exchange ("forex") and binary options without (i) registering with the CFTC or (ii) receiving an exemption from the requirement to register.
Unregistered Commodity Trading Advisor
A Texas company agreed to pay $75,000 to settle CFTC charges of failing to register as a commodity trading advisor. While unregistered, the company allegedly (i) engaged in OTC swaps and commodity options trading advice and (ii) furnished commodity trading advice to at least 15 people.
Speculative Position Limits
A Hong Kong company will pay $300,000 to settle CFTC charges of exceeding speculative position limits for soybean futures contracts and failing to report fixed price cash positions in the products to the CFTC.
Audit Trail Information
A registered futures commission merchant intends to pay $160,000 to settle CFTC charges of failing to maintain the electronic audit trail information of 65 clients. Although it received the audit trail data, the merchant's systems allegedly "corrupted the data," leading to approximately 8.4 million faulty records.
Swap Transaction Reporting Obligations
A provisionally registered non-U.S. swap dealer consented to pay $750,000 to settle CFTC charges of failing to accurately report swap transactions to a registered swap data repository ("SDR"). According to the Order, the swap dealer under-reported, over-reported, misreported and failed to report thousands of transactions to an SDR.
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