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This article analyzes the confusion faced by commodity futures traders in assessing whether their trading strategies constitute illegal spoofing and examines whether the CFTC and Seventh Circuit have provided sufficient guidance on the distinction between spoofing and legitimate trading activity.
In 2010, Congress expressly criminalized a type of trading activity on the commodity futures exchanges referred to as “spoofing.” This new anti-spoofing statute greatly increased a prosecutor’s power to crack down on traders who place and cancel orders at extremely high speeds through the use of powerful computer programs, supposedly in order to manipulate commodity futures prices and harm innocent investors. However, following the government’s first criminal conviction for spoofing in United States v. Coscia, questions remain about what makes a commodity futures trader’s conduct illegal instead of a legitimate trading strategy. Nonetheless, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently have brought a substantial number of new cases against traders for violations of the anti-spoofing statute.
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DOJ’s Cyber Fraud Initiative: A Wake-up Call That Keeps Ringing
By Randy S. Grossman, Kareem A. Salem and Kayla LaRosa
DOJ’s Cyber Fraud Initiative has been a wake-up call for companies to prioritize cybersecurity and adhere to stringent standards. By leveraging the FCA, DOJ has used a powerful enforcement tool to target a wide range of cybersecurity failures and misrepresentations. The increasing focus on cybersecurity by enforcement agencies means that robust cybersecurity practices are becoming a standard expectation, not just a best practice.
The State of Supreme Court Jurisprudence On Public Corruption
By Carrie H. Cohen and Allison M. Magnarelli
In the past decade, each time the Supreme Court has taken certiorari in a public corruption case, the court has reversed trial convictions and limited the types of conduct that constitute a federal bribery offense.
Defending Against Extradition to the United States
By Robert J. Anello and Richard F. Albert
The arm of U.S. extradition law is long. Fortunately, practitioners have defenses at their disposal that they may raise in the requested country’s courts to help either limit the scope of prosecution once extradition occurs, or to prevent it altogether.
New DOJ Self-Disclosure Pilot Program Increases Risk for Startups
By Jonathan Fahey, Jonathan P. Lienhard and Oliver Roberts
The DOJ has created new incentives for employee, or anyone, to report criminal misconduct allegedly committed by companies and their agents. Given their often laxer internal reporting structures and higher employee turnover rates, startup companies should pay particularly close attention to this new development to best mitigate legal risks.