Hedge fund fined by CFTC for manipulating palladium price

[uranian]

Moore Capital Settles With CFTC For $25M

Louis Bacon’s hedge fund firm Moore Capital Management will pay a $25 million fine to settle charges that a former manager tried to manipulate platinum and palladium futures settlement prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The settlement was announced by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Thursday.

The CFTC alleged that from November 2007 through May 2008, the former Moore Capital portfolio manager engaged in a practice called “banging the close,” meaning he built up a substantial position toward the end of the trading day and then offset it.

As part of the settlement, Moore Capital won’t be able to trade in the futures and options within 15 minutes of and during the closing period for platinum and palladium.

Moore Capital, in a statement, said the portfolio manager involved in the investigation left the firm in the fall of 2008 and that the firm cooperated fully with the CFTC’s investigation.

Moore Capital has had its problems lately with regulatory agencies. In March, Julian Rifat, an execution trader in the firm’s London office, was swept up in an alleged U.K. insider trading investigation. Rifat has denied any wrongdoing and is on administrative leave from the firm.

Separately, the CFTC announced on Thursday a settlement with Morgan Stanley Capital Group and UBS Securities for concealing the existence of a large block crude oil trade from NYMEX.

Morgan Stanley will pay $14 million and UBS will pay $200,000 to settle the charges, the CFTC said.

could be a precursor to fines for manipulation of the gold and silver markets?

[Gknowmx]

forget the fines, just let the market prices move natural.

[Neuro]

I just think they are going after a few small fish outside the inner circle to make it appear as they are doing something... The article doesn't say anything about what type of trade they were involved in but my bet is that they were a pain in the arse for the shorters!