The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a set of enforcement updates spanning market manipulation, misuse of confidential information, and alleged investor fraud. The updates include two federal court consent orders sanctioning former precious metals futures traders for spoofing, a separate consent order imposing monetary relief and trading restrictions on a trader and firm for misappropriating confidential information and engaging in fictitious trading, and a new federal court complaint alleging fraud and registration violations involving an unregistered crypto commodity pool. In the spoofing matter, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered consent orders against Gregg Smith and Michael Nowak, requiring USD 200,000 and USD 150,000 civil monetary penalties respectively, along with CFTC trading and registration bans of three years for Smith and six months for Nowak, plus cease-and-desist obligations under the Commodity Exchange Act. In the Texas matter, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a consent order against Peter Miller and Omerta Capital LLC requiring joint and several payment of USD 135,788 in disgorgement and a USD 200,000 civil monetary penalty, with an 18-month ban on registration and all trading and a five-year ban on block trading. In Oklahoma, the CFTC filed a complaint against Travis Ford and Wolf Capital Crypto Trading LLC alleging they solicited and accepted the equivalent of more than USD 10 million for an unregistered commodity pool, seeking restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction. The release also referenced related criminal proceedings and noted the CFTC’s customer protection fraud advisories, including guidance to verify a firm’s registration status via NFA BASIC and information on whistleblower award eligibility of 10 to 30 percent of collected monetary sanctions.

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