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CFTC v. U.K. Resident Navinder Singh Sarao and His Company Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC (layering, 2015)

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 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission obtained a judgment against U.K. Resident Navinder Singh Sarao and His Company Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC, alleging conduct this library classifies as layering, price manipulation and spoofing. The release does not state a monetary figure that we were able to extract. A parallel criminal matter is referenced in the release.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 7156-15
Date filed 2015-04-22
Date resolved 2015-04-22
Court U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Status judgment
Asset class futures
Venue CME
Criminal parallel Yes
Defendants U.K. Resident Navinder Singh Sarao (individual) ; His Company Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC (entity)
Techniques Layering , Price manipulation , Spoofing

What was ordered

Civil penalty
Disgorgement
Prejudgment interest
Total relief
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 April 22, 2015 as release 7156-15. The respondents named are U.K. Resident Navinder Singh Sarao and His Company Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC (1 individual, 1 entity). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois.

This library tags the matter as layering, price manipulation and spoofing, 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 futures, with CME identified in the release.

The release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

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. 2015-04-22 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. Navinder Singh Sarao (layering, 2016) CFTC 2016-11-18 Layering , Price Manipulation +1 $38m judgment
SEC v. SpeedRoute LLC (layering, 2025) SEC 2025-01-10 Layering , Pump And Dump +2 settled
SEC v. OTC Link LLC (layering, 2024) SEC 2024-08-12 Layering , Spoofing +2 settled
CFTC v. HSBC Bank USA (cash vs derivatives schemes, 2023) CFTC 2023-11-07 Cash Vs Derivatives Schemes , Insider Trading +2 $1.7bn filed
SEC v. Archipelago Trading Services, Inc. (layering, 2023) SEC 2023-08-29 Layering , Spoofing +1 settled
CFTC v. unnamed respondents (cash vs derivatives schemes, 2022) CFTC 2022-10-20 Cash Vs Derivatives Schemes , Exchange Wash Trading +4 $41m judgment

Record added September 8, 2026. submit a correction.