WASHINGTON DC (Commodity Online): The US District Court of Southern District of New York has imposed a civil monetary penality of $150,000 on Robert Moore, former Executive Managing Director for the Bank of Montreal's(BMO) Commodity Derivatives Group, in a case involving mis-marking and mis-valuing of BMO's nautral gas options book by the trader he supervised.

The federal court order, entered on March 8, 2010, by the Honorable George B. Daniels of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, requires Moore to pay a $150,000 civil monetary penalty within ten days. The order also permanently prohibits Moore from engaging in any conduct in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and/or CFTC regulations concerning any commodity options transaction.

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The order stems from a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) complaint filed on November 18, 2008, that charged defendant David P. Lee with unlawfully mis-marking his natural gas options positions between at least May 2003 and May 2007 and with mis-valuing other natural gas options positions from October 2006 until May 2007. Further, the complaint charged that Lee and various brokers deceived BMO by fabricating purportedly independent broker quotes delivered to BMO’s back office for price and skew verification. The complaint alleged that such conduct violates the anti-fraud and false reporting provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. Moore was Lee’s direct supervisor at BMO. Moore was charged with controlling person liability for Lee’s violations.Lee settled the action against him in November 2009.