U.S. regulators charge firm with energy market manipulation
U.S. regulators have charged a Dutch firm and three executives with trying to manipulate the oil and gasoline market.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Thursday it has filed civil charges of manipulation and attempted manipulation against Optiver Holding BV, along with two of its subsidiaries.
The commission also charged head trader Chris Dowson, supervisor Randal Meijer and CEO Bastiaan van Kempen.
The CFTC alleged the defendants profited by about $1 million US from the manipulation scheme during an 11-day period in March 2007.
The regulator charged the defendants tried 19 times to manipulate three different futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and were successful on five of those attempts.
Authorities said Optiver used a scheme called "banging the close."
"Repeatedly, throughout March 2007, defendants attempted to manipulate the price of the crude oil, heating oil and New York Harbor gasoline futures contracts by trading a large number of futures contracts during the pre-close and the close," the CFTC charged in its complaint.
Amid large fluctuations in the futures contract price for crude, the CFTC revealed in May that it had launched an investigation in December 2007 into possible price manipulation on U.S. oil markets.
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