CFTC fines Sidney Lebental $200,000 for spoofing Treasuries

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered New York trader Sidney Lebental to pay $200,000 and suspended his commodity trading privileges for 30 days after finding he placed roughly 50 deceptive orders on the Chicago Board of Trade in 2019. The CFTC’s settled order states Lebental neither admitted nor denied the agency’s findings.

The order says that between January and September 2019 Lebental entered genuine orders for cash Treasury securities or a related futures contract and at the same time placed larger, false orders on the opposite side in a correlated futures instrument on the CBOT. Once the legitimate orders filled, he canceled the larger phantom orders, a sequence the CFTC identifies as spoofing because the cancellations were intended to move prices in his favor.

The activity mainly targeted Ultra U.S. Treasury Bond futures, contracts tied to 25- to 30-year government debt. The agency found Lebental was aware the contracts were linked closely enough that the spoof orders would affect market prices and benefit his real trades.

The settlement includes standard public-statement restrictions, a prohibition on future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act’s spoofing provisions and a requirement that registered firms deny him trading privileges during the 30-day suspension.

Lebental served as head of the linear rates desk at a global bank during the period covered by the order and previously worked at Bank of America Securities. FINRA previously flagged him for hundreds of suspect Treasury orders before he reached a settlement in 2024, and Bank of America paid a $24 million FINRA fine in late 2023 related to spoofing on its Treasury desk.

The CFTC action follows other enforcement steps targeting deceptive trading in fixed-income futures. Market participants will monitor whether regulators take additional action tied to the same desk or similar correlated-instrument tactics.