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FERC Issues Penalty Assessment in Vitol CAISO Market Manipulation Proceeding

Pratt’s Energy Law Report

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued an Order Assessing Civil Penalties, imposing approximately $1.5 million in civil penalties on Vitol Inc. and $1 million in penalties on a Vitol trader. In a departure from prior cases, the Commission assessed penalties well below Enforcement Staff ’s recommended $6 million penalty for the company, in light of the individual trader’s significant involvement in the alleged scheme. After Vitol and the trader failed to pay the penalties, the Commission filed an action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California to collect the civil penalties. That action will involve de novo review.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) has issued an Order Assessing Civil Penalties (“Order”), imposing civil penalties of $1,515,738 against Vitol Inc. (“Vitol”) and $1 million against Federico Corteggiano, a Vitol trader, in connection with an alleged market manipulation scheme in the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s (“CAISO”) markets. Additionally, the Commission ordered Vitol to disgorge unjust profits, plus interest, of $1,227,143.

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“FERC Issues Penalty Assessment in Vitol CAISO Market Manipulation Proceeding,” by Mark R. Haskell, George D. Billinson, and Lamiya N. Rahman was published in the March 2020 edition of Pratt’s Energy Law Report (Volume 20, Number 3), an A.S. Pratt Publication, LexisNexis. Reprinted with permission.

This article was first published as a Blank Rome Energy alert in November 2019.