According to the CFTC, Singhal’s spoofing took place through manual trading in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) wheat futures market between at least March and June 2016.

“The CFTC Order finds that Singhal frequently engaged in this spoofing activity by first entering larger limit orders on one side of the CME wheat futures market, and at times, several larger orders in succession,” the CFTC said. “The Order finds that Singhal then entered a smaller, aggressive order (a market order) on the opposite side of the market, which was usually filled instantaneously or within a fraction of a second. In most instances, the Order finds, after the smaller order was entered and executed Singhal continued to modify his larger orders further away from the market, each modification generally within seconds of the last, but in all such instances those larger orders were cancelled without any part of the order being filled. The Order finds that Singhal repeated this trading pattern numerous times during the relevant period.”

Under terms of the CFTC Order, Singhal must cease and desist his spoofing conduct, is subject to a four-month trading suspension on all registered entities, and must pay a $150,000 civil monetary penalty.