DECEMBER 2011 - $77.1 million settlement proposed.
On November 24, 2008 Amaranth Advisors LLC, along with two of its former traders reached a settlement deal with the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to resolve all claims against Amaranth and its traders. The deal was submitted on November 24, 2008 to the FERC and must be approved by the full commission. The settlement must also be approved by an agency judge. Amaranth Advisors LLC, a hedge fund, and two of its traders, Brian Hunter and Matthew Donohue were charged in 2007 with manipulating prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2006, and the FERC had proposed a $291 million fine. Amaranth, once worth $9.2 billion, lost $6.4 billion in bad natural gas contracts before it went bankrupt in 2006, as one of the largest hedge funds to collapse ever. Hunter has filed several cases to attempt to block FERC from advancing its enforcement action, stating that FERC does not have jurisdiction over violations in futures markets. A separate case against Amaranth and Hunter has also been filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and is still in litigation. This case also alleges attempted manipulation of gas prices in 2006 and asks for a permanent ban against Hunter from trading in any markets the CFTC regulates. The FERC regulates the buying and selling of natural gas that is shipped across state lines, while the CFTC regulates commodities exchanges, like the New York Mercantile Exchange.