The CFTC and Virtual Currencies: Amidst All the Hype, Don’t Forget “Commodity” is still a Defined Term

Posted on: April 13, 2018 By: Michael Brooks, Philip Wiseman
The Internet recently erupted with news reports and law firm legal alerts broadcasting the endorsement by a federal court of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) position that virtual currencies (a/k/a cryptocurrencies) are commodities subject to CFTC oversight pursuant to the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA). However, while it is clear that Bitcoin is a commodity for purposes of CFTC jurisdiction, the same may not be true of other virtual currencies. The CFTC generally has exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives, including futures, options and swaps, but it only has...
Tags: 
CFTC
Commodities

FERC Approves Settlement of Alleged Market Manipulation Suit

Posted on: April 12, 2018 By: Stephen Hug, Serena Rwejuna, Bob Pease, Michael Brooks, Sarah Rafie
On April 10, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”) approved a stipulation and consent agreement (the “Settlement Agreement”) between FERC’s Office of Enforcement (“Enforcement”) and ETRACOM LLC and Michael Rosenberg [1] (“Respondents”). The Settlement Agreement brings to an end three years of litigation before FERC and a U.S. federal district court concerning FERC’s allegations that the Respondents manipulated the California Independent System Operator Corp. (“CAISO”) market by placing uneconomic virtual transactions for the purpose of benefitting...
Tags: 
FERC
Regional Energy Law
Litigation
Power

Court Provides Further Clarity Regarding Scope of FERC’s Enforcement Authority

Posted on: April 9, 2018 By: Michael Brooks, Bob Pease, Stephen Hug, Serena Rwejuna, Sarah Rafie
On March 30, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio issued an opinion granting in part and denying in part motions to dismiss the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) action seeking to enforce its assessment of civil penalties against Coaltrain Energy, L.P. (“Coaltrain”), the two co-owners of Coaltrain, and three other individuals (collectively, the “Defendants”). FERC alleges that the Defendants: manipulated the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. market by placing virtual transactions for the purpose of increasing Coaltrain’s eligibility for Marginal Loss Surplus...
Tags: 
Courts
Enforcement
FERC
Organized Markets

U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Alert: March 2018

Posted on: April 9, 2018 By: David Perlman, Michael Brooks, Bob Pease, Ryan Eletto, Josh Freda
The Bracewell U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Report is a monthly report that provides summaries of certain disciplinary notices by U.S. exchanges during the prior month. The report has a particular focus on notices potentially relevant to energy commodities and is not intended to be a comprehensive review of each and every notice issued. Instead, the report is intended to provide market participants, and compliance personnel in particular, with illustrative examples of rule violations and to bring to light enforcement trends across the exchanges. The disciplinary notices cited in...
Tags: 
Commodities
Organized Markets

U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Alert: February 2018

Posted on: March 22, 2018 By: David Perlman, Michael Brooks, Bob Pease, Ryan Eletto
The Bracewell U.S. Futures Exchanges Disciplinary Actions Report is a monthly report that provides summaries of certain disciplinary notices by U.S. exchanges during the prior month. The report has a particular focus on notices potentially relevant to energy commodities and is not intended to be a comprehensive review of each and every notice issued. Instead, the report is intended to provide market participants, and compliance personnel in particular, with illustrative examples of rule violations and to bring to light enforcement trends across the exchanges. The disciplinary notices cited in...
Tags: 
Commodities
Organized Markets

Pages