Clifford Chance
CFTC Presses Its Case to Expand Conduct Punishable as Manipulation
26 July 2016
In a brief filed in New York federal court on July 13, in support of an enforcement action, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission pressed again its controversial view that a trader can be guilty of attempted price manipulation without the specific intent to create an “artificial price.” Rather, the CFTC, contesting an industry amicus curiae brief that cited more than 30 years of contrary CFTC and judicial precedent, insists that proof of attempted price manipulation can be based upon a trader’s acts intended to simply influence price, regardless of the trader’s belief, or the reality, that his or her act was in furtherance of achieving a true value of the traded instrument.
