Supreme Court Declines to Hear Challenge to CFTC Authority

The Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in Monex Deposit Co., et al. v. the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The case challenged the scope of the CFTC's anti-fraud authority; in particular, whether CFTC authority extends to contracts with the "actual delivery" of precious metals and to fraud unrelated to market manipulation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined that the CFTC's authority extended to the alleged misconduct. (A full summary of the Ninth Circuit decision is available here.)

Robert A. Schwartz, the CFTC Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, stated that the Supreme Court action "should put to rest any question of the CFTC's authority to redress fraud in commodity markets."