May 2, 2011

CFTC Permanently Bars Former CME Floor Broker Thorbjorn Haveman from Trading for Misappropriation and Fictitious, Noncompetitive and Unauthorized Trading

Haveman ordered to pay a $140,000 civil monetary penalty.

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today filed and simultaneously settled charges against Thorbjorn Haveman of Elmhurst, Ill., for executing hundreds of fictitious, noncompetitive and unauthorized trades over an 18-month period and fraudulently misappropriating profits from the trades. Haveman was a registered floor broker with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) from September 2008 to April 2010, when the CME terminated his registration, and is currently not registered with the CFTC.

The CFTC order finds that, from September 2008 to February 2010, Haveman, then a registered CME floor broker trading for his own account, recorded 458 round turn trades in the S&P 500 futures contract that were not executed in the trading pit between his account and the accounts of three “local” traders who employed him as a clerk. A “local” trader is a trader with exchange trading privileges who trades for his or her own account. Because none of the three traders had authorized Haveman to execute the trades on his or her behalf, the trades were unauthorized and violated the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), the order finds. The CFTC order describes Haveman’s scheme in detail.

Haveman collected the traders’ trading cards throughout the trading day to check for errors as part of his clerking duties. Once Haveman obtained the cards, he entered fictitious round-turn trades in S&P 500 futures contracts on the traders’ cards and also on his own trading cards that recorded trades between the traders’ accounts and his account, resulting in profits to Haveman’s account and losses to the traders’ accounts, according to the order. Haveman prearranged the price and quantity of the 458 round turn trades outside of the S&P 500 futures pit, falsified trading cards containing the prearranged trading information and failed to submit the trades to the futures pit for open and competitive execution. The order concludes that the trades violated the CEA and CFTC regulations because they were unauthorized, fictitious and noncompetitive.

According to the order, Haveman misappropriated $218,425 from the three traders because each unlawful round turn was profitable to Haveman but caused a corresponding loss to the other traders.

The CFTC order requires Haveman to pay a $140,000 civil monetary penalty and permanently bars him from trading. The CME Group brought a disciplinary action against Haveman on the same facts and required Haveman to pay restitution of $218,425 to the three traders.

The CFTC appreciates the assistance of the CME Group.

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this case are Camille Arnold, Susan Gradman, Scott Williamson, Rosemary Hollinger and Richard Wagner.

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Last Updated: May 2, 2011