Today, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, made an announcement regarding its 2019 results. The report focused on their compliance and annual enforcements, with several high-profile cases to add to it. Criminal charges of spoofing, manipulation, and unlawful usage of customer funds have all been on the list for the fiscal year.

A 39% Increase

CFTC’s fiscal year of 2019 spanned from the 1st of October, 2018, to the 30th of September, 2019. Within this timeframe, the CFTC managed to pull in over $1.3 billion in penalties, disgorgements, and restitutions. Compared to the previous fiscal year, the CFTC has pushed out 39% more in fines, making this the fourth-highest year in the entirety of the CFTC’s history.

This year’s total enforcement actions tallies up to 69 for the CFTC. This is just slightly higher than last year’s 67 actions. The CFTC has pursued, in their eyes, complex and significant litigations in various cases. Only four of these cases fell outside the charges of manipulative conduct, spoofing, and commodities fraud.

Whistleblower Initiatives

The CFTC’s Division of Enforcement has highlighted several of its initiatives within the report. These initiatives focus on supporting the CFTC’s whistleblower program: A staple for many US regulatory bodies. The CFTC and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) have substantial whistleblower programs in their arsenal. This is to ensure that investigations are streamlined through the encouragement and rewarding of tipsters.

In 2019, the CFTC issued a total of five whistleblower awards. The total amount of monetary rewards totals $15 million. This is a far cry from the $75 million given out during 2018. In 2018, five awards were given out, the largest one totaling in $30 million, to various tipsters of that year.

Going Hard Against Rulebreakers

Through the use of landmark settlements, the CFTC has managed to secure several enforceable commitments to high profile cases. These cases span the whole spectrum of the marketplace: Spoofing, retail fraud involving crypto, benchmark rate manipulations and more. The highest number of cases for 2019 was commodities fraud, totaling in 25 of the 69 cases.

The CFTC’s report highlighted several actions taken against various cryptocurrency schemes. The regulating body considers this a key milestone in its legal actions of the year.

The report goes into detail about the CFTC showing no sign of easing up on legal actions as the new fiscal year of 2020 dawns on the firm. Heath P. Tarbert was sworn in as the CFTC’s Fourteenth Chairman on the 15th of July, 2019. Tarbert has already made his leadership direction clear: The CFTC will come down hard on any who break the regulator’s rules. Of the CFTC’s 69 actions, 48 were done under his rule. That totals to almost 70% of legal actions that were done for the entire year. This all was done only in the span of three months.