Mr Artem Obolensky suffers a rare foreign national penalty under The Dodd-Frank Act
The first regular working day of the year is under way and the CFTC is already enforcing a rare action against a foreign national. The regulator has released a press release that informs us of a settlement with Russian national Artem Obolensky totaling $250,000 for making false and misleading statements to CFTC’s staff in relation to an investigation.
Mr Obolensky has been appointed as President of Russian bank SMP back in February last year. He is also a co-owner of a Cypriot private investment fund that trades currency futures and options on the CME. He has made a false statement on October 13 2011 during an interview related to a trade between the two counterparties in a call option trade on the Japanese Yen expiring in March 2012.
Back then he stated that both counterparties are pursuing different strategies and it was a mere coincidence that the trades have crossed. However CFTC’s investigation has found out that the parties have taken positions opposite to each other more than 182 times. Both parties have even modified their orders to match and therefore ensure that a transaction occurs.
CFTC’s Order found that it was Mr Obolensky personally who made the decisions for both accounts, hence he knew that CFTC’s questions were not coincidental in their nature.
In addition to the fine the regulator requires Obolensky to cease and desist from violating Dodd-Frank’s prohibition against providing false and misleading information of the Commodity Exchange Act.
For the full press release visit CFTC’s website.
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