NOTICE OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

NON-MEMBER:

ALI ABBASSI

EXCHANGE RULES: RULE 575.A. DISRUPTIVE PRACTICES PROHIBITED

No person shall enter or cause to be entered an order with the intent, at the time of order entry, to cancel the order before execution or to modify the order to avoid execution.

FINDINGS:

Pursuant to an offer of settlement that Ali Abbassi (“Abassi”) presented at a hearing on April 18, 2018, in which Abbassi neither admitted nor denied the rule violations upon which the below penalty is based, Abbassi agrees to an entry of findings by a Panel of the NYMEX Business Conduct Committee (“BCC Panel”) that, between April 2016 and June 2016, Abbassi engaged in disruptive trading activity in the Henry Hub Natural Gas Futures contract market by entering orders without the intent to trade. Specifically, the Panel found that Abbassi typically entered larger orders on one side of the market and then cancelled them after resting smaller orders on the opposite side of the book were executed.

The Panel concluded that Abbassi violated Exchange Rule 575.A.

PENALTY:

In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered Abbassi to pay a monetary fine of $5,000 and to serve a three-month suspension from membership privileges on any CME Group Inc. exchange and direct or indirect access to all electronic trading and clearing platform owned or operated by CME Group Inc., including CME Globex. The suspension shall run from April 20, 2018 through, and including July 20, 2018. The Panel took Abbassi’s financial condition into account when levying the sanction.