The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today released the agency’s enforcement results for fiscal year (FY) 2015, which included a record $3.144 billion in civil monetary penalties ordered against wrongdoers and continued the CFTC’s unwavering commitment to the protection of customers and ensuring market integrity.

This past fiscal year, the CFTC filed 69 enforcement actions focusing on manipulation, spoofing and fraud and ensuring market participants meet their regulatory requirements.  The agency also continued to devote significant resources to litigating complex cases, and a number of those litigations reached successful resolutions.

“Integrity of the markets is at the core of our mission, and I am dedicated to ensuring that the agency has an aggressive enforcement program to protect customers and prevent fraud and manipulation,” said Chairman Timothy Massad.  “I thank the hardworking staff of the CFTC’s Enforcement Division for their work in protecting the integrity of the futures and swaps market.”

In FY 2015, the CFTC took a number of significant actions enforcing the new authorities granted by Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act.  This includes enforcement of the Commodity Exchange Act’s (CEA) anti-spoofing clause, including its action, along with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), against Navinder Sarao; use of the CEA’s new anti-manipulation authority; and enforcement actions against swaps markets intermediaries to ensure their compliance with supervision and reporting obligations, which are critical to the smooth running of the markets and the CFTC’s ability to detect and address potential misconduct.  The CFTC also continued its prosecution of benchmark rate manipulation cases, imposing the largest monetary penalty in CFTC history ($800 million) against Deutsche Bank for manipulation of LIBOR, as well as bringing and settling the first cases charging attempted manipulation of forex exchange benchmark rates and the ISDAFix rate, both benchmark rates are used by individuals and firms across the globe. 

“I could not be more proud of the accomplishments of the hardworking and talented staff of Division of Enforcement,” said Aitan Goelman, the Division of Enforcement’s (Enforcement Division) Director.  “Their unswerving dedication to the Division’s mission of protecting customers and ensuring market integrity brought truly exceptional results in FY 2015.  Despite our limited resources, the men and women of the Division were able to achieve extraordinary things, including record fines and the groundbreaking utilization of many of the new authorities that Congress bestowed upon the agency in the Dodd-Frank Act.  Their work makes the futures and swaps markets fairer and customers safer.”   

During FY 2015, over $2.8 billion was collected and deposited at the U.S. Treasury.  These are the highest figures in the CFTC’s history with respect to the amount of civil monetary penalties imposed and collected during a fiscal year.  Alone, this year's civil monetary penalties total more than twelve times the CFTC’s operating budget for the FY.  These Orders bring the CFTC’s total monetary sanctions over the past two fiscal years to more than $6.4 billion.  In addition to the $3.144 billion in civil monetary penalties, the CFTC was also awarded $59 million this year in restitution and disgorgement orders, bringing the CFTC’s total monetary sanctions for FY 2015 to over $3.2 billion.