USO ETF Fined $2.5 Million Over Lapses Amid Oil’s Historic Slump

The firm that runs a popular oil-tracking exchange traded fund will pay $2.5 million to settle claims that it made misleading statements to investors when crude endured a historic rout during last year’s coronavirus crisis.

United States Oil Fund LP and its general partner, United States Commodity Funds LLC, failed to promptly disclose that its futures broker had stopped executing new positions in oil contracts when the commodity’s price went negative for the first time ever in April 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in Monday statements. That restriction created the risk ...