Market Manipulation. Search

SEC v. Citadel Securities, LLC (2023)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 3, 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.

Report an error in this record (sec-citadel-securities-llc-2023) by email

In September 2023 the Securities and Exchange Commission settled an administrative order with Citadel Securities, finding that a coding error caused millions of sell orders to be marked long or short incorrectly. The order imposes a $7 million penalty.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency SEC
Release number 34-98482
Date filed 2023-09-22
Date resolved 2023-09-22
Status settled
Asset class equities
Criminal parallel No
Defendants Citadel Securities, LLC (entity)
Cited as charged or alleged Regulation SHO (Rules 203 and 204) (statutes and rules cited in the document; not a finding that they were violated)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$7m
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
$7m
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 Securities and Exchange Commission announced this matter on September 22, 2023 as release 34-98482. The respondents named are Citadel Securities, LLC (0 individuals, 1 entity).

The order finds that between 2015 and 2020 an error in how Citadel Securities calculated its position for riskless-principal not-held orders led to mismarking, in breach of Regulation SHO order-marking rules.

This library does not tag the matter to a manipulation technique. The order concerns order marking only; it finds no sale without a borrow or locate.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil penalty of $7,000,000. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.

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

  1. 2023-09-22 Administrative proceeding instituted (cease-and-desist)

Primary documents

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

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.