NOTICE OF DISCIPLINARY ACTION

FILE NO.:

CME 08-04909-BC

NON-MEMBER:

RONALD T. BARBA

CME RULE VIOLATIONS:

Rule 542 Simultaneous Spread and Combination Transactions

A. All spread or combination transactions in which all sides are acquired simultaneously must be for the same account or accounts with the same ownership, except as provided by Rule 527….

Rule 432. General Offenses

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T. to engage in … uncommercial conduct.

FINDINGS:

Pursuant to an offer of settlement in which Ronald Barba neither admitted nor denied the rule violations upon which the penalty is based, on October 14, 2010, a Panel of the CME Business Conduct Committee found that on October 23, 2008, Barba placed customer orders to buy and sell 400 Japanese yen futures spreads, and then after the orders were competitively executed in the market, had one of the legs allocated to a customer’s account and the other leg allocated to his personal account. As a result of the allocation, which occurred with the customer’s permission, Barba realized a profit of $450,000. The next day all the spread legs were transferred back into the customer’s account, thus removing the profit from Barba’s account and giving it back to the customer. In so doing, the Panel found that Barba violated CME Rules 542 and 432.T.

PENALTY:

In accordance with the settlement offer and in consideration of Barba’s cooperation during the course of the investigation, the Panel fined Barba $15,000 and suspended his access to any CME Group trading floor, and direct access to any CME Group electronic trading or clearing platform for 30 business days, beginning October 18, 2010, and continuing through November 29, 2010, inclusive.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

October 18, 2010