It will likely be the end of 2024 or later before a lawsuit alleging ethanol-market manipulation against Archer Daniels Midland is brought to trial, as a federal judge on Monday ordered the parties in the case to file briefs later this year.
AOT Holding AG is one of several plaintiffs that have sued ADM, alleging the company manipulated ethanol prices, violating the Commodity Exchange Act. Specifically, AOT has alleged ADM suppressed the daily benchmark price of ethanol to benefit its short positions.
AOT alleged in a May 2020 lawsuit that ADM's actions benefited the company by increasing the value of ADM's "short" or hedged ethanol positions, by flooding the Argo fuel terminal with lower-priced ethanol starting in November 2017 through March 2019. The terminal is the daily location for ethanol trading.
The trading window is considered crucial because the trading is used to set the daily Chicago benchmark price to determine the value of Chicago ethanol derivatives.
U.S. District Judge Colin S. Bruce expressed frustration about the pace at which the AOT lawsuit is moving, in an order handed down in the U.S. District Court for the District of Central Illinois.
Bruce decided to not set a trial date until after a number of motions are addressed by the court.
"The court is aware that this case is an older case and is not unsympathetic to plaintiffs' frustrations about that delay, as expressed in plaintiffs' notice," Bruce said in an order.
Photo Credit: ADM
Categories: Iowa, Energy