NOTICE OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

NON-MEMBER:          

Leonard Kardelis

CBOT RULE VIOLATION:      

Rule 575.A. (DISRUPTIVE PRACTICES PROHIBITED)

All orders must be entered for the purpose of executing bona fide transactions. Additionally, all non-actionable messages must be entered in good faith for legitimate purposes.

               A.      No person shall enter or cause to be entered an order with an 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 in which Leonard Kardelis (“Kardelis”) neither admitted nor denied the rule violation upon which the penalty is based, on August 12, 2020, a Panel of the Chicago Board of Trade Business Conduct Committee (“Panel”) found that on one or more occasions between February 2018, and May 2018, Kardelis entered orders in the CBOT June 2018 10-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures markets on the Globex electronic trading platform during the pre-opening session that were not entered for the purpose of executing bona fide transactions. Rather, Kardelis entered the orders to discern the depth of the order book at varying prices levels. The entry and cancellation of these orders caused fluctuations in the publicly displayed Indicative Opening Price. The Panel thereby concluded that Kardelis violated CBOT Rule 575.A.

PENALTY:          

In accordance with the settlement offer, the Panel ordered Kardelis to: 1) pay a $15,000 fine; and 2) serve a twenty-business day suspension from access to any trading floor owned or controlled by CME Group and from direct and indirect access to any designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization or swap execution facility owned or controlled by CME Group. The suspension shall run from August 14, 2020, through September 11, 2020, inclusive.

EFFECTIVE DATE:                

August 14, 2020