CFTC v. Lansing Trade Group, LLC (price manipulation, 2018)

Settled

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In July 2018 the CFTC issued an order settling charges against Kansas commodity merchandiser Lansing Trade Group, LLC for attempting to manipulate the price of CBOT wheat futures and options in March 2015 by buying and cancelling 250 wheat shipping certificates to signal false demand, and for aiding an attempted manipulation of the Columbus corn cash price. Lansing pays a $3.4 million penalty and must strengthen its controls.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$3.4m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$3.4m

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 July 12, 2018 as release 7754-18. The respondent named is Lansing Trade Group, LLC (0 individuals, 1 entity).

The order finds that Lansing acquired and cancelled certificates for 3 ppm vomitoxin wheat to send a false signal of demand, intending to raise the value of its spread and option positions, and had a trader brief a newsletter writer to spread word of it. This library tags the matter as price manipulation.

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

The relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $3.4 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.

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

Timeline

1. 2018-07-12 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.

• CFTC release

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.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.