CFTC settles spoofing case against trader Sidney Lebental with $200,000 penalty
The CFTC said Sidney Lebental settled spoofing charges tied to Treasury futures trading and agreed to a $200,000 penalty, a one-month trading ban and a cease-and-desist order.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it settled spoofing charges against Sidney Lebental, a New York-based dual French and American citizen, in an order imposing a $200,000 civil monetary penalty, a one-month ban on trading commodity interests and a cease-and-desist order.
Spoofing involves placing orders with the intent to cancel them before execution, a prohibited practice in U.S. commodity markets, the CFTC said. The agency said the conduct involved Treasury futures trading, mainly the Ultra U.S. Treasury Bond futures contract, on the Chicago Board of Trade.
According to the order, Lebental engaged in spoofing on about 50 occasions from January to September 2019. The CFTC said he placed genuine orders for cash Treasuries, or sometimes a Treasury futures contract, on one side of the order book while entering spoof orders on the opposite side in a correlated Treasury futures contract that he intended to cancel before execution. After his genuine orders were filled, he canceled the spoof orders, the agency said.
The CFTC’s release identifies Lebental as the respondent in a filed-and-settled enforcement action. The order requires him to stop violating the spoofing prohibition in the Commodity Exchange Act.
The agency did not include additional details in the press release about any admissions by Lebental or about future enforcement steps. The settlement and sanctions were announced in the CFTC’s enforcement press release dated May 6, 2026.
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