Suspected Crude Oil Insider Trading Resurfaces Before Hormuz Strait Opening, $760M Futures Dumped

Gate News message, April 19 — Roughly 20 minutes before Iran announced the opening of the Strait of Hormuz on April 17, approximately $760 million worth of crude oil futures were dumped in a concentrated sell-off, according to Reuters. This marks the third suspected instance of "precisely timed" insider trading since the escalation of U.S.-Israel-Iran tensions.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating the series of trading spikes that preceded shifts in U.S. policy, according to Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the matter. The CFTC has requested the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) provide trading account identity information and other data to track whether the traders involved used insider information. The CFTC, CME, and ICE have all declined to comment on the investigation.