Citigroup (NYSE: C) has agreed to pay $525,000 in fines over accusations that the firm exceeded speculative position limits in wheat futures contracts in trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission says Citigroup violated trading limits on multiple occasions in December 20009. Citigroup neither admits nor denies the commission's findings and conclusions. According to the Commission, Citigroup traders' bullish positions on the Chicago Board of Trade were used to hedge customer transactions over the wheat trading limit of 6,500 contracts for all combined contract months. The penalty is a small one for Citigroup, which had operating cash flow of more than $41 billion in 2011.
