Market Manipulation. Search

CFTC v. Société Générale S.A. (benchmark submission rigging, 2018)

Judgment entered

Machine-extracted, pending human review. The structured fields on this page were parsed automatically from the regulator's own release, linked below. Read the primary document before relying on any figure here, and tell us if something is wrong.

In 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission obtained a judgment against Société Générale S.A., alleging conduct this library classifies as benchmark submission rigging and price manipulation. The release records a civil penalty of $475 million. A parallel criminal matter is referenced in the release.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 7736-18
Date filed 2018-06-04
Date resolved 2018-06-04
Status judgment
Asset class futures
Criminal parallel Yes
Defendants Société Générale S.A. (entity)
Techniques Benchmark submission rigging , Price manipulation

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$475m
Disgorgement
Prejudgment interest
Total relief
$475m
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 4, 2018 as release 7736-18. The respondents named are Société Générale S.A. (0 individuals, 1 entity).

This library tags the matter as benchmark submission rigging and price manipulation, 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 conduct is recorded against futures.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $475 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.

The release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

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 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.

Timeline

  1. 2018-06-04 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
CFTC v. Bank of America (benchmark submission rigging, 2018) CFTC 2018-09-19 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $30m judgment
CFTC v. ICAP Capital Markets LLC (benchmark submission rigging, 2018) CFTC 2018-09-18 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $50m judgment
CFTC v. BNP Paribas (benchmark submission rigging, 2018) CFTC 2018-08-29 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $90m judgment
CFTC v. JPMorgan Chase Bank (benchmark submission rigging, 2018) CFTC 2018-06-18 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $65m judgment
CFTC v. Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (benchmark submission rigging, 2018) CFTC 2018-02-01 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $70m judgment
CFTC v. The Royal Bank of Scotland (benchmark submission rigging, 2017) CFTC 2017-02-04 Benchmark Submission Rigging , Price Manipulation $85m judgment

Record added September 8, 2026. submit a correction.