Page 33 - 期货和衍生品行业监管动态（2022年11月）

期货和衍生品行业监管动态

brokerage business from his employer to Classic. According to the order, Tippett also
participated in a scheme to misappropriate confidential block trade order information

from the same Classic customer, facilitated fictitious trades, and made false

statements to ICE Futures US.

The order requires Tippett to disgorge $695,000 in ill-gotten gains, imposes a

$500,000 civil monetary penalty, permanently bans Tippett from trading commodity

interests, and requires him to comply with undertakings never to apply for registration

or engage in any activity requiring registration with the CFTC.

“The CFTC will vigorously pursue and take action to stop corruption among

brokers and other intermediaries that facilitate trading in the derivatives markets,

whether they are making illegal kickback payments or misappropriating nonpublic

information,” said Acting Director of Enforcement Gretchen Lowe. “Today’s action
demonstrates that the CFTC is committed to taking action against all individuals who

engage in such conduct.”

Case Background

According to the order, at Clark’s request, Classic hired Tippett as a broker in

November 2015 for the purpose of facilitating kickback payments to Clark. Tippett

was a longtime associate of Clark and had no experience as a broker prior to being

hired by Classic. As part of this kickback scheme, Tippett would broker natural gas

futures block trades for Clark’s employer, but would pay most of the commission

income he earned on these trades back to Clark in exchange for Clark sending more

brokerage business to Classic. Beginning on or around November 23, 2015, and

continuing through August 2019, Tippett paid Clark approximately $3,185,775, and

kept $695,000 of this commission income for himself. According to order, Tippett

concealed these payments to Clark in a variety of ways, including by sending cash
directly to Clark’s family members or by transferring money to shell companies set up

by Clark. Tippett admits the facts of this misconduct and acknowledges this conduct

violated the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).

20