Market Manipulation. Search

CFTC announcement of three spoofing settlements (Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Belvedere, Mitsubishi International) (2019)

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 2019, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced three settled actions against Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc., Belvedere Trading LLC and Mitsubishi International Corporation. The release announces three settled spoofing orders, against two trading firms and one bank, totalling $3 million.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 8031-19
Date filed 2019-10-01
Date resolved 2019-10-01
Status judgment
Asset class commodities, futures
Venue CME
Criminal parallel No
Defendants Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. (entity) ; Belvedere Trading LLC (entity) ; Mitsubishi International Corporation (entity)
Also named elsewhere Belvedere Trading LLC is named in 1 other matter ; Mitsubishi International Corporation is named in 1 other matter
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
—
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 October 1, 2019 as release 8031-19. The respondents named are Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc., Belvedere Trading LLC and Mitsubishi International Corporation (0 individuals, 3 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 release announces three settled spoofing orders, against two trading firms and one bank, totalling $3 million.

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

The penalties ($1.5 million, $1.1 million and $400,000) are recorded on each order's own record, so none is repeated here.

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. 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.

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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

Date filed Agency Record Status
2019-10-01 CFTC CFTC announcement of three spoofing settlements (Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Belvedere, Mitsubishi International) (2019)(this record) Judgment entered
2019-10-01 CFTC CFTC v. Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. (spoofing, 2019) Judgment entered

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

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.