NOTICE OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

NON-MEMBER:          

Deok Yeon La

CME RULE VIOLATIONS:    

539.A. General Prohibition

No person shall prearrange or pre-negotiate any purchase or sale or noncompetitively execute any transaction, except in accordance with Sections B. and C. below.

FINDINGS:         

On May 4, 2020, the Chief Regulatory Officer of the CME Group’s Designated Contract Markets charged Deok Yeon La with violating CME Rule 539.A. based on allegations that on one or more occasions between November 2018, and December 2018, La pre-arranged or pre-negotiated the purchase or sale of December 2018 E-Mini Nasdaq futures on Globex. Specifically, La engaged in a pattern of trading in pairs where another trader aggressively entered or modified an order into the market and traded against La’s resting orders several levels deep in the order book, typically in a round-turn fashion. In other instances, if La’s orders did not receive a full fill from the other trader’s orders, La would immediately follow with an aggressive order entry or modification to take advantage of the price movement caused by the other trader’s activity.

On December 9, 2020, a Hearing Panel Chair of the CME Business Conduct Committee (“BCC”) found that La failed to answer the charge issued against him. In failing to answer the charge, the Hearing Panel Chair further found that La was deemed to have admitted the charge issued and waived his right to a hearing on the merits of the charge.

Pursuant to CME Rule 407.C., a penalty hearing was held before a Panel of the BCC (“Panel”) on December 9, 2020. The Panel found La guilty of committing the admitted charges.

PENALTY:          

Based on the record and the Panel’s findings and conclusions, the Panel ordered that La pay a fine in the amount of $35,000. The Panel further suspended La’s 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 for a period of one year, beginning on the effective date below and continuing for one year from the date that the ordered fine is paid.

EFFECTIVE DATE: 

December 31, 2020