The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently reached a settlement in its case against Puerto Rico resident Peter Miller, a natural gas trader, and his firm Omerta Capital LLC. According to a recent docket entry in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the settlement agreement was reached during a settlement conference held on July 23, 2025; however, the terms of the settlement have not yet been disclosed.
In December 2021, the CFTC and the Department of Justice announced that charges had been filed against Miller and Omerta for their roles in an alleged commodities insider trading scheme, in which Miller, through Omerta, allegedly conducted fraudulent noncompetitive trades, including prearranged trades, for personal gain. According to the DOJ, from August 2015 through December 2018, Miller obtained material nonpublic information (“MNPI”) from a co-conspirator, who allegedly received the information from two employees who worked at an unnamed Houston energy trading company. Based on the MNPI, Miller allegedly used Omerta to engage in fictitious transactions that caused prices to be reported with commodities exchanges that were not true and bona fide. According to the CFTC, “Miller traded in this manner as part of a spread trading strategy in which he sought to profit from the relative movement in the prices of the two natural gas futures contracts.” This trading strategy allegedly resulted in a negation of market risk that allowed Miller to maximize his illegal profits. Miller allegedly generated more than $1.5 million in profits from the scheme — profits that he reportedly split with his co-conspirators.
The DOJ charged Miller with four counts of commodities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud. In February 2022, Miller pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and was sentenced in June 2024 to 5 months in prison and 29 months of supervised release.
The CFTC filed parallel civil charges against Miller and Omerta for their roles in the scheme seeking, among other things, injunctive relief, civil monetary penalties, and disgorgement. In December 2022, the CFTC amended its complaint against Miller and Omerta to include allegations that they engaged in another fraudulent scheme that was nearly identical to the first one; however, the trades in the second scheme were based on information belonging to a different energy company. Miller allegedly generated more than $3.5 million in illegal profits from the second scheme. The CFTC also charged Miller and Omerta with making false statements to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in connection with their “pre-hedged trades.”
Docket – Minute Entry | CFTC Press Release – December 10, 2021 | CFTC Press Release – December 2, 2022 | DOJ Press Release – December 10, 2021 | DOJ – Victim Notification (Classic Energy and Associated Cases)