ASIC v. COFCO International Australia Pty Ltd (marking the close, 2024)

Alleged — pending

These are allegations. ASIC has filed an action; nothing in it has been proven, and the respondents have not been found liable. Everything described on this page is what the regulator alleges, not what a court has found. See our editorial policy.

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (asic-cofco-international-australia-pty-ltd-marking-the-close-2024) by email

In July 2024 ASIC began Federal Court civil penalty proceedings against COFCO International Australia Pty Ltd and COFCO Resources SA, alleging they placed orders shortly before the close of the ASX 24 day session on 34 occasions between January and March 2022 to affect the settlement price of January 2023 Eastern Australia wheat futures. ASIC seeks declarations and penalties. The matter is an allegation.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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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 Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced this matter on July 24, 2024 as release 24-163MR. The respondents named are COFCO International Australia Pty Ltd and COFCO Resources SA (0 individuals, 2 entities).

ASIC describes the conduct as marking the close, with orders alleged to have produced artificial prices that did not reflect genuine supply and demand. This library tags the matter as marking the close and price manipulation.

The conduct is recorded against futures.

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.

This matter is at the allegation stage. Nothing in the regulator's filing has been proven, and the respondents are entitled to the presumption that it has not been. This page will be updated if the matter is resolved, dismissed or withdrawn.

Checked on 2026-10-04: no outcome found on ASIC pages. ASIC's release 24-163MR carries a later update saying that on August 3, 2026 the Federal Court made consent orders moving the hearing from September 28, 2026 to October 2, 2026. The page records no judgment, finding or penalty. The matter remains an allegation.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with 2 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.

• Marking the close — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
• Price manipulation — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2024-07-24 ASIC media release

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• ASIC media release

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. If this matter has since resolved, been withdrawn or been dismissed, we want to know: submit a correction.