The case concerning former Citigroup director John Aaron Brooks has come to an end after a US District Court judge has ordered Mr. Brooks to pay a$500,000 settlement in order to address charges placed upon him by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for defrauding his employer.
Mr. Brooks, of Houston, Texas, was employed by Citicorp North America and served as an executive director within the institution’s commodities business. Whilst holding this position, the CFTC cited that he cheated and defrauded Citigroup by inflating and mismarking the value of his position in the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) ethanol futures contract in Citigroup’s own proprietary trading account.
It was asserted that Mr. Brooks knowingly offset and masked losses in other futures positions.
As a result of this, the CFTC filed a complaint on September 27, 2013 charging Mr Brooks with employing manipulative and deceptive devices and contrivances, as well as cheating and defrauding and concealing trading losses from a large commercial bank and its affiliate by inflating the value of NYMEX ethanol futures.
Yesterday, the judgement entered against Mr. Brooks ordered that he must pay $500,000 as a settlement to the charges, and is subject to a permanent ban from registering with the CFTC, as well as a seven year ban from trading any CFTC regulated products for or on behalf of others, and a five year ban from trading or having any other party trade CFTC regulated ethanol products on his behalf.