By Anirban Sen, Mihika Sharma and Anusha Shah
April 15 (Reuters) – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating a series of oil futures trades that were placed shortly before major policy shifts by U.S. President Donald Trump related to the war in Iran, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday .
The CFTC probe is focused on trading of oil futures contracts on platforms belonging to CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange, with investigators examining at least two instances of oil trades made on March 23 and April 7, the source said.
The data requested from the exchanges include the so-called Tag 50 identifications of the entities behind the trades.
A spokesperson for the CFTC declined to comment on the matter. ICE and CME did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Well-timed trades have potentially led to millions of dollars in profits, leading experts and lawmakers to call for investigations into whether government information has been leaking ahead of time.
The White House has warned staff against improperly leveraging their positions to place bets in futures markets amidst the ongoing war in Iran.
Investors placed an approximately $950 million bet on oil prices just hours before the U.S. and Iran announced a ceasefire last week.
The agency’s enforcement director last month said the agency is focused on policing market misconduct and manipulation, especially in energy markets. At the time, he said the agency was aware of recent speculation regarding insider trading in CFTC-regulated markets and was “watching”.
(Reporting by Anirban Sen and Chris Prentice in New York, Mihika Sharma and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru, Editing by Franklin Paul and Chizu Nomiyama)
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