Release: 4680-02 (CFTC Docket No. S.D. 97-3)
For Release: July 29, 2002

CFTC ISSUES ORDER SUSPENDING AND RESTRICTING FLOOR BROKER’S REGISTRATION BASED ON EXCHANGE DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that on July 29, 2002, it accepted an offer of settlement from Eric Zuccarelli of Perrineville, New Jersey, a member of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (NYMEX) and the Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX), who agreed to the suspension and restriction of his registration as a floor broker.

The CFTC filed a Notice of Intent to Revoke, Suspend, or Condition Registration as a Floor Broker against Zuccarelli on March 5, 1997. Zuccarelli has consented to the order’s findings that the facts in the Notice constitute good cause to statutorily disqualify him as a floor broker. The Notice alleges that the COMEX Committee on Business Conduct charged Zuccarelli, on at least two occasions, with violating COMEX rules prohibiting improper conduct.

Specifically, according to the Notice, on January 18, 1990, the COMEX Supervisory Committee found that Zuccarelli had violated COMEX rules prohibiting noncompetitive trading, improper crosstrading, washtrading, prearranged trading, and failing to record information properly on customer order tickets and fined Zuccarelli $30,000, suspended him from trading for two weeks, and ordered him to cease and desist. Furthermore, according to the Notice, on December 7, 1994, the COMEX accepted an offer of settlement resolving charges that Zuccarelli violated COMEX rules prohibiting noncompetitive trading, prearranged trading, accommodating another broker in that broker’s indirect bucketing of customer orders, inserting a fictitious price into the Exchange’s price change register for the purpose of electing another broker’s order, and failing to record trades on his trading cards in the order of their execution. Pursuant to the settlement, the COMEX imposed a $50,000 fine, a four-week suspension of Zuccarelli’s trading privileges, and an order to cease and desist.

The CFTC found that these disciplinary actions instituted against Zuccarelli, and the facts underlying them, constituted good cause under section 8a(3)(M) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to revoke, suspend, or condition Zuccarelli’s floor broker registration as authorized under section 8a(4) of the CEA.

Settlement Suspends Zuccarelli’s Registration for Six Months and Then Restricts His Registration for Two Years

Zuccarelli, without admitting or denying the charges in the Notice, consented to the entry of a CFTC order suspending his registration as a floor broker for six months and subsequently restricting his registration for two years, during which time his trading will be subject to supervision by a Sponsor.

The following CFTC Division of Enforcement staff are responsible for this case: Charles Sgro, Beth Morgenstern, Sheila L. Marhamati, Eliud Ramirez, and John Cipriani.

A copy of the Commission’s Order and the CFTC Notice of Intent to Revoke, Suspend, or Condition Registration as a Floor Broker issued against Zuccarelli may be obtained at www.cftc.gov.

Media Contact
Charles Sgro
Regional Counsel, Eastern Regional Office
CFTC Division of Enforcement (646) 746-9759

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