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WASHINGTON — The Wall
Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission is investigating whether some commodity traders may
have had advance warning last month of the discovery of “mad cow”
disease in a Washington state dairy herd.
CFTC investigators, WSJ
said, are examining trading patterns on live cattle futures
transactions through the Chicago Mercantile Exchange shortly prior to
the BSE announcement. The investigation involves witness interviews as
well as scrutiny of telephone records and other documents. Of
particular interest are “short” sales that allowed traders to
realize large profits on the sharp market decline that followed the
announcement.
“Rumors” of the discovery “were widewspread” in the
hours before USDA’s announcement, the Journal reported, “and circulated as early as the night before,”
according to an unnamed “official at the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association.”
The publication noted that USDA’s Washington office received
notification of “presumptive” positive results on Dec. 22, the day
before the announcement, and that samples from the infected cow had
been at the agency’s Ames, Iowa test lab since Dec. 11.
The story said cattle futures trading patterns overall
weren’t unusual during the period in question, which “suggests the
investigation may be focusing on individuals’ trades.” Officials
evidently suspected something might be amiss immediately, because CFTC
enforcement chief Gregory Mocek told WSJ
that the investigation began Dec. 23, the day of the “mad cow”
announcement. The probe was launched, Mocek said, “as a result of
various issues that came to our attention.” |
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