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April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres on Tuesday wrote to U.S. market regulators pushing for an investigation into large oil trades placed just hours before the announcement of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire that Reuters first reported last week.
Torres, who wrote to regulators last week to push for a probe into lucrative recent trading activity on oil markets back in March, on Tuesday urged Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael
Selig to open a joint investigation into the trades.
* Reuters on April 8 reported that in the space of oneminute, investors placed trades the previous day that bet on afall in the oil price worth roughly $950 million a couple ofhours before U.S. President Donald Trump announced a two-weekceasefire with Iran, which knocked crude futures down by some15% at the start of regular trading on April 8. * "If accurate, the timing and scale of these trades warrantimmediate scrutiny," Torres said in his letter. * Other Democrats have also raised concerns about timelytrades around major U.S. policy events. Democratic senatorsElizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate BankingCommittee, and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, in a letter releasedon Friday, called upon regulators to investigate unusually largecommodity and equity trades that closely preceded major WhiteHouse decisions on Iran, Venezuela and tariffs. * Oil prices have shot up in hugely volatile trading byaround 40% to above $100 a barrel since the start of the Iranwar that has effectively shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, throughwhich some 20% of global daily energy supplies usually flow. * Representatives for the SEC and CFTC did not immediatelyrespond to a request for comment.(Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Michelle Price and Keith Weir)
