OCTOBER TERM, 1996
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the second circuit
No. 95-1181. Argued November 13, 1996—Decided February 25, 1997
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) brought this action, claiming that petitioners solicited investments in and operated a fraudulent scheme involving transactions in foreign currency options in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. Petitioners allegedly engaged in the transactions by contracting directly with international banks and others, rather than using a regulated exchange or board of trade. This is known as trading in the "off-exchange" or "over-the-counter" market. Both petitioners and their customers suffered heavy losses. The District Court appointed a temporary receiver to take control of petitioners' property, rejecting their defense that the transactions were exempt from the CEA under the so-called "Treasury Amendment," which excepts "transactions in foreign currency" unless they involve a sale "for future delivery" "conducted on a board of trade." The Court of Appeals affirmed.
Held: The Treasury Amendment exempts from CFTC regulation off-exchange trading in foreign currency options. Options (transactions in which the buyer purchases the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an agreed amount of a commodity at a set rate at any time prior to the option's expiration) like those at issue here are plainly "transactions in foreign currency" within the statute's meaning. The Court is not persuaded by any of the CFTC's arguments in support of a narrower reading that would exempt futures contracts (agreements to buy or sell a specified quantity of a commodity at a particular price for delivery at a set future date) without exempting options. The normal reading of the last-quoted phrase encompasses all transactions in which foreign currency is the fungible good whose fluctuating market price provides the motive for trading. Reading the text to include only the actual purchase or sale of foreign currency, as the CFTC urges, violates the ordinary meaning of the key word "in." On the CFTC's reasoning, the exemption's application to futures contracts could not be sustained, in clear contravention of Congress' intent to exempt off-exchange foreign currency futures from CFTC regulation. This interpretation would also render the provision mere surplusage, and is not supported by the Treasury Amendment's legislative history. Given the history of evolv-
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