CFTC v. Classic Energy LLC and Mathew D. Webb (front running, 2019)

Settled

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In October 2019 the CFTC filed and settled charges against introducing broker Classic Energy LLC and its owner Mathew D. Webb for misusing customers' confidential block-trade order information in natural gas futures on ICE Futures US, taking the other side of at least 63 block trades in his own account between April 2014 and September 2015. The order imposes a $1.5 million penalty, $413,065 of disgorgement from Webb and a trading ban until January 2022.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.5m

Disgorgement

$413k

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$1.9m

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 settled order on October 1, 2019 as release 8030-19. The order was entered on September 30, 2019. The respondents are Classic Energy LLC and its owner Mathew D. Webb of Houston (1 individual, 1 entity); earlier versions of this record listed them as "Energy Broker" and "Its Owner", both as individuals.

Per the order, across at least 63 block trades from April 2014 to September 2015, Webb exploited confidential order details his brokerage's customers entrusted to him. Instead of finding other market participants to take the other side, he took the other side in his own proprietary account, while creating the impression he acted only as a broker and still charging commissions; he made profits of over $400,000. Classic is held vicariously liable. The order also finds supervision and recordkeeping failures, including no policy against brokers trading against customer blocks, an independent trader sitting on the trading floor with access to customer information, and lost audio recordings of block trades.

Classic and Webb pay a $1.5 million civil penalty, and Webb must disgorge $413,065 and is banned from CFTC-registered trading and registration activities until January 3, 2022. The conduct is trading against customer orders on confidential information, which this library files under front running.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above.

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2019-10-01 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
• CFTC order or complaint

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.