Dianne Feinstein: “Yes, it was CMS Energy. The year was 2001. They announced that. Additionally, Duke Energy disclosed that $1.1 billion…”

“Yes, it was CMS Energy. The year was 2001. They announced that. Additionally, Duke Energy disclosed that $1.1 billion worth of trades were round trip, wash trades, since 1999; roughly two-thirds of these were done on the InterContinental Exchange, which means that thousands of subscribers would have seen these false price signals. A class action suit accused the El Paso Corporation of engaging in dozens of round trip energy wash trades that artificially bolstered its revenues and trading volumes over the last 2 years. CMS Energy Corp. has admitted conducting wash energy trades that artificially inflated its revenue by more than $4.4 billion. So this is important. I have a hard time, I think, as you do, that if I sell something to you and you just sell it back to me and we both boost sales and yet nothing is really sold, that that is a legitimate way of doing business.”