The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) entered into a consent order of permanent injunction with former Mirant energy trader Paul Atha, settling charges that he falsely reported and attempted to manipulate natural gas prices.

The order, which was entered Wednesday by Judge J. Owen Forrester of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, requires Atha to pay a $200,000 civil penalty and permanently prohibits him from applying for registration with the CFTC, engaging in any activity requiring such registration, or acting as a principal as defined by the National Futures Association.

The order arises from a CFTC lawsuit filed on Feb. 1, 2005 charging that, between January 2000 and late 2000 or early 2001, Atha repeatedly submitted false gas trading information, including fabricated price, volume and counterparty information, to certain firms that compile natural gas price indexes.

The CFTC said that Atha, in concert with two other traders who were also charged in the complaint, regularly submitted false natural gas trading information to companies that calculated natural gas price indexes, including Inside FERC Gas Market Report, Gas Daily, and Natural Gas Intelligence. The order further finds that Atha knowingly submitted the false information in an attempt to skew those indexes at multiple natural gas delivery locations to benefit trading positions.

The CFTC previously settled with Atha’s co-defendants in November 2006 (see Daily GPI, Nov. 20, 2006). The order against Atha resolves the CFTC’s lawsuit in its entirety.

Previously, on June 19, 2006, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Atha and his co-defendants in the CFTC complaint each pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to manipulate the price of a commodity in interstate commerce (see Daily GPI, June 21, 2006). The criminal charges were based upon some of the same conduct alleged in the CFTC complaint. Atha was sentenced on Nov. 13, 2006 and received a three-year probation, six months of home confinement and a $5,000 fine.

©Copyright 2007Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.