Energy giants charged with controlling crude oil prices

The involved energy giants controlled inventory on the one hand, and created the illusion that crude oil stocks on the New York Mercantile Exchange were lower, pushing up oil prices; on the other hand, they sold shorts ahead of schedule, and when the sell-off of stocks caused prices to fall, profits were obtained.

The U.S. regulatory authorities launched the largest effort to crack down on price manipulation of crude oil on the 24th, and sued two well-known traders and their affiliated trading organizations for profiting 50 million U.S. dollars by operating the market in 2008.

This suit stems from the Commodity Trade Commission's three-year survey of speculative trading in crude oil, coincident with President Barack Obama's vowed to stabilize gasoline prices and ensure that oil prices are not manipulated.

The US Commodity Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Parnon Energy of the United States, Arcadia Petroleum of the United Kingdom, and Arcadia Energy of Switzerland. The list of defendants contained two traders, Australian James Dell and American Nicolas Wildeggus.

The three institutions of the defendant, the United States Parnon Energy Corporation, the British Arcadia Oil Company and the Swiss Arcadia Energy Company, are all members of the Norwegian-Cypriot billionaire John Frederickson’s “Energy Kingdom”. Both are controlled by Frederickson’s Farahead Holding Company.

The lawsuit wrote that from the end of 2007 to April 2008, the above-mentioned three agencies and two defendant traders purchased millions of barrels of cash positions to control the tight supply of Sidekza intermediate-base crude, “even if they There is no commercial demand for crude oil."

After pushing up oil prices, they put hoardings of crude oil on the market, which caused the oil price to drop sharply, and he himself made great profits by setting up empty orders in advance.

The lawsuit wrote: “The defendant led a (oil price) manipulation cycle and pushed up the price of crude oil in the Middle Depression intermediate base to an artificial high, and then withdrew and fell to earn illegal profits.”

Earn a soft hand According to the complaint, Dell wrote in an e-mail sent to Parnon and Arcadia's other traders in September 2007 that the illusion of a lower crude oil inventory on the New York Mercantile Exchange could "be big. Earn special earning."

The complaint said: "The pursuit of this manipulative cycle ... the defendant earned more than $50 million from the West Side Crux crude oil derivative trade."

When the defendant implemented the above plan, the international crude oil market price was hitting a historical high of nearly 150 US dollars per barrel, and the market speculation fever became crazy. This plan was successful during January-March 2008 but expired in April. The price of oil rose by 20 dollars per barrel in April that year and soared to nearly 120 dollars per barrel.

The three-times penalty petition stated that the Commodity Exchange Commission may pursue a compensation equivalent to three times the cash profits from illegal transactions, and may impose other fines and bans. If the Commodity Exchange Commission successfully wins $150 million in compensation, it will be the second-largest ticket in the history of this institution.

A commodity ** commission spokesman declined to confirm or deny the details of the compensation that the suit may pursue.

The lawsuit wrote that after the defendant was discovered in April 2008 by the Commodity Trade Commission, he immediately terminated the plan.

Parnon and Arcadia executives have not responded to the media call for an accused response. Frederickson, Dell and Wildergus were temporarily unavailable. But the list of defendants does not include Frederickson.