The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it obtained $615,000 in disgorgement and a civil monetary penalty in a federal court consent order against defendant Kuen Cheol Song for engaging in an illegal, fictitious trading scheme. Song has never been registered with the CFTC. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York permanently banned Song from engaging in any commodity-related activity, including trading, and from registering or seeking exemption from registration with the CFTC.

According to the CFTC, Song controlled and traded his personal account and the Woori Absolute Global Opportunity Fund (WAGOF) account of his employer, Singapore-based Woori Absolute Partners. Starting on August 28, 2009, Song engaged in a series of natural gas futures transactions during which Song “repeatedly, illegally, and self-servingly, traded futures contacts between his personal account and the WAGOF account.” Song also engaged in a similar trading pattern with cotton, corn, soybean and wheat futures, according to the order.

Read more about the CFTC’s enforcement action against Kuen Cheol Song.