CFTC ACTION: Kuen Cheol Song

The CFTC announced that it charged Kuen Cheol Song, a citizen of Singapore, with engaging in fictitious transactions and trading noncompetitively in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. Song has never been registered with the CFTC.

The CFTC complaint alleges that, since at least August 28, 2009, defendant Song engaged in a series of unlawful commodity futures transactions involving Natural Gas and Hearing Oil futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Through this allegedly unlawful scheme, Song repeatedly made non-competitive, fictitious trades between his personal account and the hedge fund account of his employer, Singapore-based Woori Absolute Partners, where he is a director. Since August 28, 2009, according to the complaint, Song’s personal account has profited by more than $348,000 through this illegal scheme of non-competitive, fictitious trades, while Woori’s account has lost a corresponding amount.

About The Author

Felix Shipkevich

Mr. Shipkevich’s practice focuses on regulatory, transactional, and enforcement matters in the fields of futures, commodities, and derivatives. He works with Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs), Retail Forex Exchange Dealers (RFEDs), Introducing Brokers (IBs), Commodity Pool Operators (CPOs), Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs), Swap Dealers (SDs), Swap Execution Facilities (SEFs), and domestic and offshore hedge funds. Mr. Shipkevich guides clients on procedures related to registration with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA), as well as domestic and international regulators in local jurisdictions. Mr. Shipkevich prepares and helps implement compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), and Electronic Trading Systems (ETS) procedures for clients in the commodities and derivatives fields.