The Commodities Futures Trading Commission collected a total of $3.27 billion in monetary sanctions from enforcement actions in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, the CFTC’s fiscal year.
That’s up from $1.7 billion in penalties in the previous fiscal year.
The increase is largely the result of larger gains in restitution and disgorgement payments. For the latest 12-month period, sanctions included more than $1.4 billion in restitution and disgorgement and more than $1.8 billion in civil penalties, said a news release from the CFTC. In fiscal year 2013, about $200 million came from restitution and disgorgement while more than $1.5 billion was received in civil monetary penalties.
The CFTC received $581 million through settlements with three firms over manipulations of LIBOR benchmarks — $475 million against Rabobank; $105 million against Lloyds Banking Group; and $1.2 million against brokerage RP Martin.
Also in the last fiscal year, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. was ordered to pay $100 million in the CFTC’s investigation of trader Bruno Iksil, know as the “London whale,” over manipulation of credit default swaps.
The agency also filed 67 new enforcement actions in the fiscal year, less than the 82 filed in fiscal 2013.
About 95% of the enforcement division’s regulatory major fraud and manipulation cases filed in the last fiscal year involved a parallel criminal proceeding, the CFTC said. Judgments entered in 12 federal criminal proceedings related to CFTC enforcement cases resulted in prison sentences against 17 people and a total of $793 million in criminal restitution.
