On March 6, 2019, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Enforcement Division released an advisory on self-reporting and cooperation for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act that involve foreign corrupt practices.
The Advisory lays out guidelines for companies or individuals “not registered (or required to be registered) with the CFTC” to receive significant cooperation credit for voluntarily and timely disclosing CEA violations involving foreign corrupt practices. Indeed, where such disclosure is followed by “full cooperation and appropriate remediation” and other measures, the Division of Enforcement will extend a presumption that no civil monetary penalties be imposed. Moreover, while registrants—which are subject to “independent reporting obligations”—will not benefit from such a presumption, cooperation may still garner “substantial reduction in the civil monetary penalty.”
The Advisory is the latest signal of the CFTC’s efforts over the last two years to more clearly define the benefits of voluntary cooperation with the Agency. This may indicate that the CFTC is taking an increased interest in corruption cases related to the commodities or swaps markets.
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