The CFTC has filed a civil an enforcement action in New York against Donald R. Wilson and his company, DRW Investments with unlawfully manipulating the price of a futures contract.
The CFTC claims that the defendants profited by at least $20 million, while their trading counterparties suffered losses of an equal amount.
“Traders cannot engage in manipulative acts to affect the price of futures contracts to achieve their desired profits, regardless of the so-called motive.” Gretchen L. Lowe, the CFTC’s Acting Director of Enforcement, said, “Today’s action demonstrates that the Commission will vigorously prosecute such cases to protect the integrity of the markets.”
According to the Complaint, Wilson and DRW allegedly caused and profited from artificial prices on the Three-Month Contract over a period of at least 118 trading days. Because Wilson and DRW allegedly caused artificial prices in multiple maturities of the Three-Month Contract each day, the manipulative scheme allegedly affected the prices of over 1,000 futures contracts.
