CFTC staff ordered to retract analysis of suspicious Iran oil trades
Bloomberg reports analysts flagged unusually timed trades worth billions ahead of Trump's Iran strike announcement, then were told to withdraw their findings.
What to know
- CFTC analysts identified unusually well-timed oil trades worth billions of dollars that occurred in the 15 minutes before Trump's March 23 announcement postponing U.S. strikes on Iran.
- Analysts referred their findings to the CFTC enforcement division, but a senior official ordered them to retract the referral, effectively suppressing the investigation.
- The incident raises questions about potential political interference in regulatory oversight and market manipulation enforcement during the Trump administration.
The dispute Whether regulatory violations under a future administration would face prosecution, or whether this pattern represents a structural breakdown in democratic oversight. · positions read across 12 posts and comments
The CFTC is compromised by the Trump administration and systematically failing to enforce its legal mandate.
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“The CFTC, since Trump, has become entirely corrupt. Note that the proliferation of sports gambling in prediction markets, which is explicitly illegal, largely exists because the CFTC refuses to enforce their own legal mandate.”
arn3n · Hacker News ↗
Regulatory machinery is ineffective when those in power simply exempt themselves from enforcement.
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“You can have all the rules, monitoring, surveillance you want, but it is all rather pointless if someone simply makes for the machinery to not apply to them.”
iugtmkbdfil834 · Hacker News ↗
This behavior may be reversed through electoral accountability, with Democrats predicted to win the next election.
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“These guys are all going to end up in prison at this rate. Dems are currently predicted to win next election no?”
mhh__ · Hacker News ↗
CFTC analysts investigatorsSenior CFTC official CFTC leadership
Donald Trump U.S. President
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesvideospostscomments
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Bloomberg publishes investigation of retracted CFTC analysis
Bloomberg reports on the suppressed CFTC analysis of the suspicious oil trades, detailing how analysts flagged unusual trading patterns worth billions of dollars ahead of Trump's Iran announcement and were subsequently ordered by a senior official to retract their enforcement referral.
“CFTC analysts flagged unusually well-timed trading ahead of a March 23 Truth Social post in which President Donald Trump postponed planned U.S. strikes on Iranian energy facilities. Billions of dollars in contracts changed hands in the 15 minutes before the announcement.”
— Bloomberg Television, News correspondent Charles Gorrivan · source -
first by Bloomberg, 13h ago · also HN Best, HN Frontpage
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The fact that Trump insiders are trading on their information is of course not surprising, even as it is sickening. But if investors lose faith in the integrity of US financial markets we lose everything that makes us wealthy. This is a really BFD. https://www. bloomberg.com/news/features/20…
2 more of the top 3 · 12 posts in this stretch
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The CFTC, since Trump, has become entirely corrupt. Note that the proliferation of sports gambling in prediction markets, which is explicitly illegal, largely exists because the CFTC refuses to enforce their own legal mandate against Kalshi and Polymarket.It’s actually worse; when states try to shut down sports betting in prediction markets, the…
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The interesting thing is how easily a democracy can be abused. In some ways, though in a more limited manner, it reminds us of Germany in 1933 or 1930s. Now the orange mafia in charge is, of course, not 1:1 comparable; ICE kills citizens willy-nilly style but they are not as systematic in their overthrow of the US democracy as the N people were in…
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background
Senior CFTC official orders retraction of analysis referral — A senior CFTC official intervenes and asks the analysts to retract their referral to the enforcement division, effectively suppressing their investigation into the trades.
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CFTC analysts identify traders and refer findings to enforcement — CFTC analysts identify the traders involved in the suspicious oil trading activity and refer their findings to the CFTC's enforcement division.
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Trump postpones Iran strikes; suspicious trading precedes announcement — President Trump posts on Truth Social that he is postponing planned U.S. strikes on Iranian energy facilities. In the 15 minutes before this announcement, billions of dollars in oil contracts change hands in patterns flagged as unusually well-timed by CFTC analysts.
What people are saying 6 voices from 1 site · best of 12 · verbatim
- Yesterday
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It is important to acknowledge and name corruption for what it is. It's just hard to continue to have novel reactions to it. It reminds me of an article I read once about cartel violence in Mexico, and how people typically become desensitized to the violence.
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> And the answer is, largely, nothing.There's a two-year delay baked into the system. If the house flips (and it almost certainly will), the house will be able to investigate these things.I expect fireworks.
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I think this is the part that makes things aggravating. You can have all the rules, monitoring, surveillance you want, but it is all rather pointless if someone simply makes for the machinery to not apply to them.Edit: And, if we accept that this is the default state, then lets dismantle the surveillance part. Might as well be free in that aspect…
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This regime, as others like it, poses the constant question, “What are you going to do about it?”And the answer is, largely, nothing.It’s a shame, really.
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These guys are all going to end up in prison at this rate. Dems are currently predicted to win next election no?
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Forget the IRS. America can balance its budget going after and fining these illegal trades and traders. MAGA!(edit: /s but not about making the government some money off this corruption)