April 5, 2016

Federal Court Orders UAE Residents Heet Khara and Nasim Salim to Pay Combined Civil Monetary Penalties of $2.69 Million for Spoofing in the Gold and Silver Futures Markets

Washington, DC – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that a federal court in New York issued a Consent Order imposing a permanent injunction against CFTC Defendants Heet Khara and Nasim Salim, residents of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), prohibiting them from engaging in spoofing in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act.

The Order requires Khara to pay a $1.38 million civil monetary penalty and Salim to pay a $1.31 million civil monetary penalty to settle CFTC charges of spoofing in the gold and silver futures markets. The Order also imposes permanent trading and registration bans on Khara and Salim.

CFTC Director of Enforcement Aitan Goelman commented: “The CFTC will protect the U.S. futures markets regardless of where those who engage in illegal spoofing practices are located. Spoofing undermines public confidence in our markets, and the CFTC will continue to aggressively pursue wrongdoers.”

According to the Order, between February 2015 and April 28, 2015, Defendants Khara and Salim, both individually and in a coordinated fashion, regularly placed larger aggregate orders for gold and silver contracts on the Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX) opposite smaller orders, and cancelled the larger orders after the smaller orders were executed. The Defendants placed the larger orders with the intent to cancel them before execution. The Order arises out of a CFTC Complaint filed on May 5, 2015 (see CFTC Complaint and Press Release 7171-15).

The CFTC thanks the staff of the CME Group, the Securities & Commodities Authority of the United Arab Emirates, and the Dubai Financial Services Authority for their cooperation and assistance in this matter.

CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this matter are Katie Rasor, Neel Chopra, Patryk J. Chudy, Trevor Kokal, Alben Weinstein, Lenel Hickson, Jr., and Manal M. Sultan.

Media Contact
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Last Updated: April 5, 2016