<p><span>The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against David Skudder, Global Ag LLC, and Nesvick Trading Group LLC for spoofing—bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution—and for the use of manipulative schemes. The schemes involved both soybean futures contracts and options on soybean futures contracts traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. Some of their misconduct involved cross-market spoofing—i.e., spoofing in one market to benefit a position in another market, where the price of the two markets is correlated. Skudder is a founder, principal, and registered associated person of Global, a registered commodity trading advisor. Skudder is also a registered associated person of Nesvick, a registered introducing broker. <
<p><span>The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas against Matthew Clark of Houston, Texas. The complaint charges Clark with misappropriating confidential natural gas block trade order information from his employer and directing natural gas block trades to a brokerage firm in exchange for a share of the brokerage commissions charged to his employer for these trades. The complaint also charges Clark with making false statements to the CFTC.</span></p>
<p><span>The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and 27 state securities regulatory agencies that are members of the North American Securities Administrators Association (</span><a href="https://www.nasaa.org/">NASAA</a><span>) announced the filing of a joint civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against a precious metals dealer and its owner for orchestrating a $68 million fraudulent scheme targeting elderly persons nationwide.</span></p>
<p><span>The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division, on January 20, 2022, entered a restraining order to preserve records and freeze assets controlled by defendants </span><span>Rajiv Patel, a/k/a Ravi Patel,</span><span> </span><span>a/k/a/ Raj Patel</span><span> (Patel) and </span><span>Bluprint LLC</span><span> (Bluprint), both of Wellington, Florida. </span></p>