Release: #4168-98 (CFTC Docket 93-2)
For Release: July 15, 1998
CFTC ACCEPTS SETTLEMENT OFFER OF FRANK J. MAZZARA
WASHINGTON -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it issued an order accepting an offer of settlement from Frank J. Mazzara, a floor broker on the Commodity Exchange Inc., in connection with a complaint filed by the CFTC on October 19, 1992. Mazzara had been registered with the CFTC as a floor broker.
The CFTC order finds that Mazzara violated the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) by defrauding his customers in the handling of their orders. The CFTC order further finds that Mazzara violated provisions of the CEA and the CFTC regulations prohibiting noncompetitive trading, fictitious sales, and causing the reporting of non-bona fide prices.
The CFTC order, entered on June 30, 1998, finds that Mazzara participated in noncompetitive trades with local traders to resolve errors he had made in handling customer orders, such as by overfilling or underfilling an order. According to the CFTC order, he also bucketed orders and traded opposite the orders of a broker executing orders for the same floor brokerage firm.
The CFTC order further finds that Mazzara, on occasion, repaid the opposite traders for losses they had absorbed from accepting his errors by changing the execution price on his customers' trades to benefit the other traders.
Mazzara, without admitting or denying the findings in the Commission's order, consented to the entry of a CFTC order:
-- finding that he defrauded his customers (Section 4b(a) of the CEA); engaged in noncompetitive trading and fictitious sales (Section 4c(a)(A) of the CEA, and CFTC regulation 1.38(a); and caused prices to be reported which were not true and bona fide (Section 4c(a)(B) of the CEA);
-- directing him to cease and desist from further violations;
-- prohibiting him from trading on a contract market for one year; and
-- revoking his registration with the CFTC.
Mazzara also agreed to undertake not to seek registration with the Commission in any capacity for one year.
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