Chicago | Reuters –– CME Group said Friday it barred a grain trader from its markets for three years for executing noncompetitive transactions and suspended another for two years for market manipulation.
The traders, Aleksey Vsemirnov and Stephen Duggan, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Vsemirnov executed numerous non-competitive transactions in wheat, oats, rice, soybean oil and Canadian dollar futures and in livestock and soybean oil options over a year beginning in August 2011, according to CME disciplinary notices. He made the trades to transfer money to his personal account from another person’s account, which is prohibited, the notices said.
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Vsemirnov also executed trades in agricultural markets and in E-mini S+P 500 futures in which he had control of accounts on both sides of the transactions, according to CME. The banned practice of acting as buyer and seller in the same transactions is known as wash trading.
Vsemirnov did not admit or deny the violations, according to the notices. CME said it ordered him to pay about US$13,000 in fines “after taking Vsemirnov’s financial condition into consideration.”
CME barred Duggan from its markets for two years for entering orders in soybean and wheat futures in August 2012 without the intent to trade and for the purpose of inducing others to trade, according to a separate disciplinary notice. That practice is known as spoofing.
In 2013, CME suspended Duggan from its markets for two years for prearranged trading, according to National Futures Association records.
Duggan did not admit to or deny any of the violations, disciplinary records show.
— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek from Chicago.
