The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered New York trader Sidney Lebental to pay $200,000 for spoofing US Treasury futures, ending a case tied to roughly 50 deceptive trades placed on the Chicago Board of Trade in 2019.
Lebental neither admitted nor denied the findings under the settled order, which also prohibits him from trading commodity interests for one month and bars further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act’s spoofing prohibition.
Inside the Treasury Futures Scheme
The CFTC said Lebental engaged in spoofing on roughly 50 occasions between January and September 2019. He primarily targeted Ultra U.S. Treasury Bond futures, contracts tied to long-dated 25- to 30-year government debt.
He placed genuine orders for cash Treasuries or a futures contract on one side. He simultaneously entered larger spoof orders on the opposite side in a correlated futures contract.
Once his real orders filled, Lebental canceled the spoofs. The agency said he knew the instruments were correlated enough to push prices in his favor.
Sanctions and Broader History
Beyond the $200,000 civil penalty, the order imposes a 30-day trading ban on commodity interests and standard public-statement restrictions. Registered entities must deny him trading privileges during that window.
Lebental served as head of the linear rates desk at a global bank during the activity covered by the order. His prior employment included Bank of America Securities.
He has faced parallel scrutiny from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The agency previously cited him for hundreds of suspect Treasury orders before he settled in 2024.
Bank of America paid a $24 million FINRA fine in late 2023 over Treasury spoofing on its desk.
The CFTC action targets conduct already on regulators’ radar. Treasury market participants will watch for further enforcement tied to the same desk and to similar correlated-instrument tactics.
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Source: beincrypto.com
