On December 1, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Enforcement published its annual report for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY 2020). CFTC enforcement actions during FY 2020 resulted in $1,327,869,760 in ordered monetary relief, the fourth-highest total on record, and the third straight year-over-year increase. It was a significant year with some remarkable highlights.
In particular, the CFTC mentions the following milestones in the report:
- the largest-ever CFTC monetary penalty ($920M);
- the most enforcement actions filed in one year in the agency’s history (113);
- the most retail fraud actions in a year (56), including a record-high 7 actions related to digital assets;
- the second-highest number of enforcement actions focused on manipulative or disruptive trading (e.g., spoofing); and
- the fourth-highest total penalties in CFTC history with more than $1.3B making 2020 the second consecutive year this figure topped $1B.
The Division also continued its preexisting efforts to coordinate its work closely with the US Department of Justice and other authorities (we’ve discussed this trend before). For example, it filed 16 actions in parallel with federal prosecutors and filed an enforcement action alongside 30 state regulators.
