Accordingly, I urge the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to: 1. Open a joint investigation into the reported trading activity, including identifying the entities and individuals responsible for the transactions and determining whether any possessed material nonpublic information.
Urge the SEC and CFTC to open a joint investigation into the reported $950 million oil futures trade and possible misuse of material nonpublic information.
Occurrences
Evidence
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ritchie Torres sent a letter to CFTC Chair Michael Selig asking the agency to broaden an existing inquiry into suspicious Brent futures trading before Trump's cease-fire announcement and to examine whether anyone traded on advance knowledge.
On May 20, the Journal reported that the CFTC was scrutinizing more than $800 million in oil-futures trades made minutes before Trump's March 23 post and was looking for signs that advance nonpublic information may have been leaked.
Assessments
Torres appears to have acted on the issue during his current House term by publicly pressing the CFTC to broaden its inquiry into suspicious oil-futures trading and possible misuse of nonpublic information. That matches part of the promise’s oversight intent. However, the available evidence does not show that he urged both the SEC and CFTC in a coordinated way, nor that a joint SEC-CFTC investigation was opened as promised. Because he materially advanced only part of the stated action, this is better scored as partial rather than delivered.