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CFTC v. of Attempted Manipulation of NYMEX Crude Oil Futures Contracts (banging the close, 2013)

Judgment entered

Machine-extracted, pending human review. The structured fields on this page were parsed automatically from the regulator's own release, linked below. Read the primary document before relying on any figure here, and tell us if something is wrong.

In 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission obtained a judgment against of Attempted Manipulation of NYMEX Crude Oil Futures Contracts, alleging conduct this library classifies as banging the close, price manipulation and settlement price manipulation. The release records a civil penalty of $400,000.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 6781-13
Date filed 2013-11-26
Date resolved 2013-11-26
Status judgment
Asset class commodities, futures
Venue NYMEX
Criminal parallel No
Defendants of Attempted Manipulation of NYMEX Crude Oil Futures Contracts (individual)
Techniques Banging the close , Price manipulation , Settlement price manipulation

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$400k
Disgorgement
Prejudgment interest
Total relief
$400k
Alleged gain

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced this matter on November 26, 2013 as release 6781-13. The respondents named are of Attempted Manipulation of NYMEX Crude Oil Futures Contracts (1 individual, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as banging the close, price manipulation and settlement price manipulation, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The conduct is recorded against commodities and futures, with NYMEX identified in the release.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $400,000. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 3 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

Timeline

  1. 2013-11-26 CFTC release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Action Agency Filed Technique Penalty Status
CFTC v. Donald R. Wilson and his Company (banging the close, 2013) CFTC 2013-11-07 Banging The Close , Price Manipulation +1 unknown
CFTC v. Statoil ASA (price manipulation, 2017) CFTC 2017-11-14 Price Manipulation , Settlement Price Manipulation $4m judgment
CFTC v. Joseph F. Welsh III (price manipulation, 2015) CFTC 2015-06-20 Price Manipulation , Settlement Price Manipulation $500k judgment
CFTC v. George Santos (price manipulation, 2026) CFTC 2026-07-31 Price Manipulation $35k judgment
CFTC v. Swiss Energy Trader (price manipulation, 2024) CFTC 2024-08-27 Price Manipulation $48m judgment
CFTC v. Trafigura (insider trading, 2024) CFTC 2024-06-17 Insider Trading , Price Manipulation $55m judgment

Record added September 8, 2026. submit a correction.