CFTC Orders Former Delta Executive Jon Ruggles To Pay $5.25 Million For Fraudulent Trading

The U.S. Commodity Futures and Trading Commission said Thursday that it has ordered Jon Ruggles, a former jet-fuel trader at Delta Air Lines Inc. , to give back $3.5 million in trading profits and pay a $1.75 million penalty. The order was part of a settlement of charges against Ruggles for making fraudulent, fictitious and noncompetitive trades in the crude oil ad heating oil futures and options, and gasoline futures, from March 2012 and December 2012. Ruggles is also permanently banned from registering with the CFTC. Ruggles, who was responsible for developing fuel-hedging strategies for Delta, then executing the trades, was found to trade the same products he traded for his employer in personal accounts in his wife's name, which he controlled. "The misappropriation of confidential, nonpublic information is fraud under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations and undermines the integrity of the derivatives market," said CFTC Director of Enforcement Aitan Goelman in a statement.