Market Manipulation. Search

CFTC v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (spoofing, 2017)

Judgment entered

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 issued an order settling charges against Citigroup Global Markets Inc.. The order finds five Citigroup traders placed more than 2,500 U.S. Treasury futures orders they intended to cancel over eighteen months in 2011 and 2012, and that the firm failed to supervise them adequately. The release records a civil penalty of $25 million.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 7516-17
Date filed 2017-01-19
Date resolved 2017-01-19
Status judgment
Asset class futures
Venue CME
Criminal parallel No
Defendants Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (entity)
Also named elsewhere Citigroup Global Markets Inc. is named in 3 other matters
Cited as charged or alleged CEA s.4c(a)(5)(C) (spoofing) (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques Spoofing

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$25m
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
$25m
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 January 19, 2017 as release 7516-17. The respondent named is Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (0 individuals, 1 entity).

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 order finds five Citigroup traders placed more than 2,500 U.S. Treasury futures orders they intended to cancel over eighteen months in 2011 and 2012, and that the firm failed to supervise them adequately.

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

The relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $25 million. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.

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. 2017-01-19 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
SEC v. Artur Khachatryan (spoofing, 2025) SEC 2025-12-16 Spoofing $112k settled
CFTC v. Brett Falloon and Flatiron Futures Traders LLC (spoofing, 2025) CFTC 2025-09-09 Spoofing $200k judgment

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.