CFTC Collected $1.3B In Fines This Year

The U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission obtained $1.3 billion in monetary relief from enforcement actions in 2019, the federal agency said in its annual report.

CFTC Enforcements Increase

This is the fourth-highest amount the CFTC has collected in history and marks a 39% increase compared to the previous fiscal year, where it obtained $947 million, the agency said.

The CFTC's highest number ever is $3.2 billion in monetary relief in the fiscal year 2014.

These fines came from the 69 actions CFTC filed this year. Approximately 65% of these penalties were taken for manipulative conduct, commodities fraud, and fraudulent misappropriation of confidential information, the agency said.

New Chairman, New CFTC, Good Old Digital Assets 

70% of all actions taken by the CFTC in the year happened between July 15 and September 3 — after Heath P. Tarbert took over as the agency’s new chairman.

The CFTC said that the actions it took in the year were aimed at ensuring market integrity, individual accountability, proper risk management systems, and compliance programs for the entities registered with the agency.

The agency continued to "aggressively prosecute misconduct involving digital assets.” 

It pointed out some of the enforcement actions it took against cryptocurrency companies this year, including the charges it brought against exchange desk Control-Finance Limited for defrauding its customers of 22,852 Bitcoin, worth $147 million at the time.

The federal agency also charged some companies and individuals for misuse of confidential information, it said in the report.