Market Manipulation. Search

CFTC v. Craig L. Clavin and Lighthouse Futures, Ltd. (2020)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 4, 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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The CFTC announced on October 12, 2021 a consent order in the Eastern District of New York against Craig Clavin and Lighthouse Futures requiring $345,000 in restitution and a $25,000 penalty and imposing permanent trading and registration bans. The defendants admitted the findings.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 8180-20
Date filed 2020-06-11
Date resolved 2021-10-12
Court U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
Status settled
Asset class futures
Criminal parallel Yes: charged (Clavin and Lighthouse), Suffolk County Supreme Court, New York, 2020-06-11
Bars imposed permanent trading ban, registration ban
Defendants Craig L. Clavin (individual) ; Lighthouse Futures, Ltd. (entity)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$25k
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
$25k
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 CFTC announced the complaint on June 11, 2020 (release 8180-20) in the Eastern District of New York. The money paid Clavin's travel, meals and other expenses, and the remainder paid purported profits to some participants in the manner of a Ponzi scheme.

The Ponzi tag is removed because the complaint charges pool solicitation fraud and misappropriation. The record named "Unregistered Commodity Pool Operator" and the trading and registration bans, once only sought, are now recorded as imposed.

Outcome. CFTC release 8447-21 (October 12, 2021) reports that the court entered a consent order for permanent injunction and monetary sanctions, in which the defendants admitted the order's findings and the complaint's allegations. It requires $345,000 in restitution, offset by restitution paid in the related criminal case, and a $25,000 civil penalty, and bans both defendants from trading and registration. The release says the pool was falsely described as successful and that false reports concealed the fraud. The order date is not stated, so the release date is used. Restitution is not a separate field here.

Timeline

  1. 2020-06-11 CFTC release published
  2. 2021-10-12 CFTC announces consent order against Clavin and Lighthouse Futures

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
2020-06-11 CFTC CFTC v. Craig L. Clavin and Lighthouse Futures, Ltd. (2020)(this record) Settled
2021-10-12 CFTC CFTC v. Craig L. Clavin and Lighthouse Futures, Ltd. (2021) 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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.