Nearly 24 Firms Seek Deal With CFTC to Settle Enforcement Cases

Almost two dozen firms have tried to strike deals with the US derivatives regulator to resolve low-stakes enforcement cases, according to an agency statement, after acting Chairman Caroline Pham made an unusual settlement offer last month.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission initiative provided “the opportunity to bring closure and clarity to firms in a timely manner while freeing up agency resources to focus on catching fraudsters and scammers and helping victims,” the regulator said in a release this week.

The CFTC didn’t respond to requests seeking details about the types of cases or the firms that have approached the regulator.

Pham at an industry conference in March told firms and individuals in the agency’s crosshairs they could come up with “reasonable” offers to settle cases that didn’t involve market abuse or customer harm. The twist: They had two weeks to do so.

The announcement, which Pham dubbed an enforcement “sprint,” sparked a mix of excitement and apprehension.

“There was a tremendous amount of interest from clients,” said Renato Mariotti, partner at law firm Paul Hastings. He said two of his clients have sought to take advantage of the offer.

Some traders and firms in the agency’s jurisdiction were keen to get lingering enforcement matters off their plates while others questioned the logistics.

“There was excitement about the intention and skepticism in practice about how it would play out,” said Carl Kennedy, co-chair of the financial markets and regulation practice group at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. Kennedy declined to comment on whether any clients approached the agency.

Other would-be dealmakers have been apprehensive about getting any settlements approved by a majority vote of the CFTC commission, which has a vacancy. The four-member commission is currently split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, which doesn’t suggest an easy path to approval, said Dorothy DeWitt, a former CFTC division director and chief executive officer of consulting firm Tolt Strategies.

“The reaction is a mixed bag,” DeWitt said. “They’re worried that the chair won’t get votes from the Democratic commissioners to finalize the settlements.”

The CFTC is open to more offers, according to a key official. Enforcement Director Brian Young on a recent industry webinar said just because the two-week window has passed doesn’t mean firms can’t try to take advantage of it.

“If you haven’t done the sprint and you think you want to do the sprint, you could come in still and ask for that treatment,” Young said. “But the practicality is, we have to give preference in terms of when we resolve cases to people who were in within that window.”

Top photo: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission headquarters in Washington, DC, on Thursday, March 6, 2025. Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg.