Vitol to pay $2.3 mln to settle California power market manipulation charges

News wire — Global energy trading giant Vitol and one of its traders will pay $2.3 million to settle charges by U.S. energy authorities that it manipulated the power market in California in 2013, a regulatory filing showed on Thursday.

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said Vitol will pay $2.225 million and its Texas-based power trader Federico Corteggiano will pay $75,000 in civil penalties to fully resolve the charges.

In 2014, FERC’s enforcement office undertook an investigation of Vitol’s trading activity in California’s electric power market during the week of Oct. 28, 2013.

In October 2019, FERC sought over $3.5 million from Vitol, alleging that Vitol and Corteggiano violated federal market manipulation rules through a scheme to sell physical power at a loss to cause prices in another market to react.

Corteggiano joined Vito12l in 2012. In 2013, he generated at least $13 million in profits for Vitol trading, according to the 2019 filing.

Vitol did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Thursday’s settlement filing says Vitol neither admits nor denies the alleged violations of certain provisions of the Federal Power Act and FERC regulations. In a March 2022 federal court filing, Vitol denied the allegations.

Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese and Deep Vakil in Bengaluru Editing by Mark Potter – Reuters