CFTC v. Steven A. Cohen (registration restricted, failure to supervise, 2016)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 2, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In August 2016 the CFTC accepted a settlement restricting Steven A. Cohen's registration as an associate person of SAC Capital Advisors, based on the SEC's January 2016 finding that he failed reasonably to supervise a portfolio manager suspected of insider trading. The CFTC order itself rests on that supervisory finding.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	CFTC
Release number	7428-16
Date filed	2016-08-16
Date resolved	2016-08-16
Status	settled
Criminal parallel	No
Defendants	Steven A. Cohen (individual)
Cited as charged or alleged	Exchange Act s.10(b) and Rule 10b-5 (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: —
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: —
Alleged gain: —

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the action on August 16, 2016 as release 7428-16, filing a notice of intent and simultaneously accepting Cohen's offer of settlement.

The CFTC order relies on an SEC order of January 8, 2016 finding that Cohen failed reasonably to supervise an employee, ignoring red flags about whether portfolio manager Matthew Martoma was trading unlawfully on inside information. Cohen is subject to statutory disqualification and agreed not to engage in registered activity until at least December 31, 2017.

The charged conduct is failure to supervise, not trading on inside information, so the insider-trading tag has been removed. The record also previously named no respondent.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

Timeline

2016-08-16 CFTC release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

CFTC release

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.