US CFTC Highlights More Commodities Frauds, Manipulative Conduct and Aggressive Prosecution on Digital Assets In Its Annual Report

The Division of Enforcement (DOE) of the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission, tasked with enforcing rules governing commodities markets in the US, has released its annual report today issued its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Annual Report. The second annual report highlights the division’s success prosecuting the most pernicious forms of misconduct in the market from manipulative behavior, to commodities fraud, to misappropriation of confidential information.

Some key highlights of the report:

• The number of actions filed by the CFTC during FY 2019 (69) marked an increase over the average of the five prior FYs (67.5%);  
• The total monetary relief awarded (more than $1.3 billion) marked a 39 percent increase over FY 2018, and is the fourth highest total in CFTC history. 
• In FY 2019, the CFTC filed more cases involving manipulative conduct and spoofing than any prior year but one — which was FY 2018.  
• Approximately 65 percent of all cases filed during FY 2019 involved charges of commodities fraud, manipulative conduct, or spoofing—violations that strike at the heart of market integrity and harm market participants. 
• In FY 2019, the CFTC filed more actions in parallel with criminal authorities than in any prior year.

The CFTC also says that it continues to “aggressively prosecute misconduct involving digital assets that fit within the Act’s definition of commodities.”

Among other cases, the Commission charged the principal of a cryptocurrency escrow fund with a multi-million dollar Bitcoin fraud. The Commission also charged a Bitcoin trading firm and its principal with a $147 million-dollar fraud. 

Recently, the US-CFTC slammed Pennsylvanian individual for fraudulent bitcoin scheme by alleging Jon Barry Thompson who is Pennsylvania-based individual for inducing two customers to send roughly $7 million to fund the purchase of bitcoin with misrepresentations that he or the company had the bitcoin in hand and the customers’ money would be safeguarded.

We witness some constructive opinions flowing in favour of bitcoin and ether, the new Chair of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) has recently said that Ether (ETH) is a commodity – hinting the room for a plethora of newly regulated derivatives products on platforms like the CBOE. There have been news of ETHUSD Futures.

CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert, at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit in New York, said “it is my view as chairman of the CFTC that ether is a commodity.”