CFTC

Now, we’re getting somewhere! The SEC and CFTC are forming a joint committee to address emerging regulatory issues. The joint committee will develop recommendations on emerging and ongoing issues relating to both agencies.

A federal court in Texas ordered Steven Leigh Shakespeare and his company, Guardian Futures, Inc. ("GFI"), an Austin-based introducing broker, to pay $260,000 in an anti-fraud action brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”). 

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has charged Patrick Rakotonanahary and Cyber Market Group LLC with operating a multi-million dollar foreign currency (“forex”) Ponzi scheme in Hawaii, and elsewhere in the United States.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has a very impressive resume: a Goldman Sachs partner at age 30 and thereafter a Treasury Department big whig helping with de-regulation under Secretary Robert Rubin. Now, however, Gensler is a true believer in regulatory reform. 

Robert Moore, former executive managing director for the Bank of Montreal’s (BMO) Commodity Derivatives Group, has entered into a consent order with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission relating to allegations of mis-marking and mis-valuing BMO’s natural gas options book by the trader he supervised. 

About a year ago, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a complaint that charged David P. Lee, a former trader for the Bank of Montreal (BMO), with unlawfully mis-marking his natural gas options positions between at least May 2003 and May 2007 and with mis-valuing other natural gas options positions from October 2006 until May 2007.

Steven Schoenfeld was named today Director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight. Schoenfeld comes to the CFTC from Global Index Strategies, a consulting firm that specializes in benchmarks and financial product development, where he was president.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) today charged CapitalStreet Financial LLC (“CSF”) and its principal, both of Charlotte, N.C., with operating a Ponzi scheme involving the fraudulent solicitation of at least $1.3 million from at least 69 customers in connection with foreign currency (“forex”) trading. The defendants also were charged with misappropriating approximately $875,000 of customer funds.

We’ve mentioned that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission are holding joint meetings on harmonization of market regulation – in particular, they are seeking “recommendations for changes to their statutes and regulations that would eliminate regulatory differences with respect to similar types of financial instruments.”

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that they will hold joint meetings to seek input from the public on harmonization of market regulation. The first meeting, on September 2, 2009, will be held at the CFTC, and the second meeting, on September 3, 2009, will be held at the SEC.