Oil Trade and Hedge Fund Fines Hit $200 Million in 2010

New York (HedgeCo.net) – Yesterday, the U.S. futures regulator sued two oil traders and their employers, the Arcadia and Parnon Energy Firms, charging they booked $50 million in profits by manipulating oil prices in 2008, according to a Reuters report.

“The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was awarded more than $200 million in penalties and fines last year, though it was not always able to collect.” Reuters said.

The CFTC has also boosted its enforcement efforts, filing 14 percent more cases in 2010 than in the previous year. The CFTC opened a record 419 investigations last year.

Reuters tracks some of the some of the largest and most prominent fines levied by the CFTC against hedge funds and other traders for violations of U.S. commodity trading regulations:

2011
* Winell Associates and Maxie Partners GP LLC: $5.2 million for unauthorized trading and misappropriating funds.
* James Peister and his company Northstar International Group: $11.3 million for defrauding investors and concealing trading losses.

2010
* General Motors Corp former global commodity manager Daniel Bealko: $6.5 million for unauthorized trading of
aluminum futures contracts at NYMEX to defraud GM.
* ConAgra Trade Group Inc: $12 million for causing an artificial crude oil price to be reported in a race to be first
to trade oil at $100.
* Moore Capital Management: $25 million for attempting to manipulate settlement prices of platinum and palladium
futures.
* Morgan Stanley Capital Group: $14 million for concealing a large block crude oil trade at settlement.

Editing by Alex Akesson
For HedgeCo.net
alex@hedgeco.net
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