CFTC fines TotalEnergies Trading $48 million for attempted market manipulation

(Reuters) - The U.S. commodity markets regulator on Tuesday ordered the Swiss energy trader TOTSA TotalEnergies Trading SA to pay a $48 million fine, alleging that the company had attempted to manipulate the market for European benchmark gasoline futures.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) found that the company in March 2018 flooded the market for physical EBOB benchmark gasoline at cut-rate prices while maintaining a large short-position betting that EBOB futures would fall in value.

"The scheme in this matter involved an attack on the market integrity of CFTC-regulated futures contracts on gasoline, and this settlement demonstrates such attacks will not be tolerated in any market," CFTC Enforcement Director Ian McGinley said in a statement.

The parent company, French oil major TotalEnergies SE, declined comment.

The maneuver amounted to losing money on physical sales to increase the value of the short position, according to the CFTC. EBOB is a benchmark of gasoline primarily used in Europe that the CFTC said trades on exchanges it regulates.

The agency said the company had offered some cooperation with investigators but had not adequately preserved some WhatsApp instant messages or produced them in a timely manner.

Caroline Pham, a Republican member of the five-person commission, dissented against the action, expressing concern the evidence was "flimsy" and criticizing the fact that documents submitted by TOTSA in its defense were not provided to commissioners before the vote on a final decision.

TOTSA reported a 2018 net profit of 706 million euros ($784.65 million), meaning the settlement fine amounts to about 6% of its earnings that year at current exchange rates.

($1 = 0.8998 euros)

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison; Additional reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and America Hernandez in Paris; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy)