The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission CFTC has fined a trading unit of French supermajor TotalEnergies for attempted manipulation of the gasoline futures market in 2018. The U.S. market regulator ordered TOTSA TotalEnergies Trading SA, formerly known as TOTSA Total Oil Trading SA TOTSA, to pay a $48 million civil monetary penalty and cease and desist from violating the Commodity Exchange Act CEA and CFTC regulations.
“Essentially, TOTSA’s traders were willing to accept less revenue from the company’s sales of physical EBOB, in an attempt to depress the reported price of EBOB, and increase TOTSA’s overall trading profits by boosting the value of the company’s EBOB-linked short position,” the CFTC said in its ruling. This conduct was an attempt at market manipulation in violation of sections of the CEA and CFTC Regulation.