CFTC Fines Tyson Foods $1.5M For Fixing Soybean Prices

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined Tyson Foods Inc. $1.5 million.

The regulator said the company did not comply with reporting and recordkeeping obligations for its grains cash positions and that it exceeded the regulator’s position limits for soybean meal futures contracts traded on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The CFTC settled charges with the food company, it said. The penalty Tyson has to pay is a civil monetary penalty. The company did not admit or deny any of the findings in the CFTC’s order.

According to the CFTC, its order found that over a five-year span that ended this past January, Tyson held CBOT soybean meal futures positions that were more than the then-applicable federal position limits. This occurred on over 590 dates, the CFTC said its order found.

The CFTC’s order also found that over about a four-and-a-half-year span that ended August of last year, the company filed incorrect statements of cash positions in grain.

The company also didn’t maintain certain cash transactions records associated with futures positions that were over the position limits, the CFTC said its order found. That violated the then-applicable recordkeeping requirements, according to the regulator.

“We are pleased to have resolved this matter with the CFTC under its civil enforcement authority,” Tyson said in an emailed statement.

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