Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is forming a blue-ribbon commissionto answer the question of what to do with America's nuclear waste.Here are our recommendations for what the commission should do.
<p><span>The Commission brought a civil enforcement case connected to a criminal insider trading conspiracy in natural gas markets referred to as the Classic Energy cases. The follow-on CFTC civil case is against co-conspirator, and former Classic Energy broker Lee Tippett, who awaits sentencing after his criminal conviction for conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and commodities fraud. I supported the Commission’s enforcement action against the defendant. However, I did not support settling that action prior to an upcoming trial in this case against another defendant where the Commission may require the defendant’s cooperation, and prior to his sentencing. Nor did I support any language in the settlement that allows the defendant to escape admitting to all of his wrongdoing, given that he played a part in a massive criminal scheme.</span></p>
<p><span>The Commission today issues a Whistleblower Award Determination based on an enforcement action that led to an Order of the Commission making findings of liability and imposing a civil monetary penalty, among other sanctions. Parallel actions were brought, based on the same misconduct, by: 1) a Federal Regulator; and 2) a foreign futures authority (Foreign Regulator). The Commission is approving the Proposed Final Determination of its Claims Review Staff (CRS) that would make an award to Claimant 1 based on the monetary sanctions collected in the Commission’s enforcement action, the Federal Regulator’s action, and the Foreign Regulator’s action.</span></p>