CFTC Enforcement: Rapid Fire

What this video covers

• The precise legal definition of spoofing, and why it is a specifically prohibited practice under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), not merely aggressive trading or poor etiquette
• The division of authority between the Division of Enforcement (DOE), which investigates and recommends, and the Commission itself, which must authorize every enforcement action
• The two civil venues: administrative proceedings for registration sanctions, and federal court for ex parte asset freezes, receivers, and disgorgement
• The civil monetary penalty formula: the greater of a set statutory amount (inflation-adjusted) or three times the monetary gain from the violation
• The distinction between disgorgement (taking the wrongdoer's ill-gotten gains) and restitution (compensating victims), and why both can be ordered in the same case
• Why CFTC reparations is a customer redress forum, not an enforcement sanction initiated by the Division of Enforcement
• The felony threshold for willful CEA violations, the fixed $1,000,000 fine and 10-year imprisonment maximums, and why only the Department of Justice (DOJ), never the CFTC, can pursue criminal penalties