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CFTC non-prosecution agreements with Jeremy Lao, Daniel Liao and Shlomo Salant (spoofing, 2017)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 2, 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.

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In 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission entered non-prosecution agreements with Jeremy Lao, Daniel Liao and Shlomo Salant. The three former Citigroup traders each admitted spoofing in U.S. Treasury futures in 2011 and 2012, and the CFTC agreed not to prosecute them in return for their cooperation in its case against Citigroup.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 7581-17
Date filed 2017-06-29
Date resolved 2017-06-29
Status settled
Asset class futures
Venue CME
Criminal parallel No
Bars imposed trading ban
Defendants Jeremy Lao (individual) ; Daniel Liao (individual) ; Shlomo Salant (individual)
Techniques Spoofing

What was ordered

Civil penalty
—
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
—
Alleged gain
—

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 Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced this matter on June 29, 2017 as release 7581-17. The respondents named are Jeremy Lao, Daniel Liao and Shlomo Salant (3 individuals, 0 entities).

This library tags the matter as spoofing, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The three former Citigroup traders each admitted spoofing in U.S. Treasury futures in 2011 and 2012, and the CFTC agreed not to prosecute them in return for their cooperation in its case against Citigroup.

The conduct is recorded against futures, with CME identified in the release.

The agreements impose no civil monetary penalty. The $350,000 penalty in Stephen Gola's separate order is recorded on his own record.

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.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique 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.

Timeline

  1. 2017-06-29 CFTC release published

Primary documents

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

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

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

Action Agency Filed Technique Penalty Status
SEC v. Frank M. Cerisano Jr. (spoofing, 2026) SEC 2026-08-10 Spoofing $335k settled
SEC v. Mingran Wang (spoofing, 2026) SEC 2026-06-25 Spoofing — settled
CFTC v. Sidney Lebental (spoofing, 2026) CFTC 2026-05-06 Spoofing $200k judgment
CFTC v. Gregg Smith and Michael Nowak (spoofing, 2026) CFTC 2026-01-16 Spoofing $350k judgment
SEBI v. Manish Mishra and others (YouTube promotion of GG Engineering, 2025) SEBI (India) 2025-12-19 Social Media Ramps , Spoofing — judgment
SEC v. Artur Khachatryan (spoofing, 2025) SEC 2025-12-16 Spoofing $112k settled

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.