CFTC tells TotalEnergies Trading to pay $48M for attempted market manipulation (NYSE:TTE)

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday ordered energy trader TOTSA TotalEnergies Trading (NYSE:TTE) to pay a $48M civil penalty, alleging the company had attempted to manipulate the market for European benchmark gasoline futures.

The regulator found that in March 2018, the company flooded the market for physical EBOB benchmark gasoline at cut-rate prices while maintaining a large short position betting that EBOB futures would fall in value, effectively losing money on physical sales to increase the value of the short position.