How Precious Metals Markets Are Policed: CFTC, SEC and FTC

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Last updated: July 18, 2026 · By White Metal Resources Editorial

This page describes the actual policing structure that sits around retail precious metals and precious metals IRAs in the United States. Every claim below traces to a public statute, an agency web page, or a specific enforcement filing. Nothing on this page is a price forecast, and nothing on this page suggests that any specific dealer is compliant or non-compliant beyond what a public record already states.

What “policed” actually means in these markets

"Policing" in this context is not a single agency or a single statute. It is a stack of overlapping federal and state authorities that reach different pieces of conduct. Some pieces of the industry are lightly touched. Others sit inside heavily regulated markets whose rulebooks run to thousands of pages.

The pieces most retirement savers touch are three. First, the commodity markets on which gold, silver, platinum, and palladium futures trade. Second, the retail sales channel through which physical bullion is marketed and delivered. Third, the self-directed IRA channel that owns the metal on the saver's behalf. Each piece has a different lead regulator.

What follows walks through each agency in turn, points at the actual statutes and case files that a saver can pull up on a laptop, and shows how the pieces line up against a rollover pitch. A reader who finishes the page will be able to look up any specific claim without paying anyone.

The CFTC and the futures and leveraged retail beat

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is the front line agency for the derivatives side of the market. Its statutory basis is the Commodity Exchange Act, and its jurisdiction runs over futures, options on futures, and swaps on commodities, including the four precious metals used in IRAs. Its home page and enforcement pages are the first place to look up a specific case.

The agency also reaches a wide slice of retail conduct, not only exchange-traded futures. When a dealer sells metal on financing or leverage to a retail customer and does not deliver the metal within 28 days, the transaction falls inside CFTC jurisdiction under the retail commodity provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act. Its precious metals fraud advisory names the pattern in plain language and points at the enforcement it has brought (source: CFTC precious metals fraud advisory).

The CFTC's enforcement tools are civil, not criminal. It can bring administrative orders, ask a federal district court to freeze assets, order restitution to injured customers, disgorge profits earned through the conduct, and impose civil monetary penalties. It can also refer conduct to the Department of Justice for criminal charges when the facts warrant it.

The public record is where the agency's work is most useful to a saver. Every enforcement filing sits on a searchable page at cftc.gov. A quick search on any specific company name will return the press releases, the orders, and the settlement documents where the agency has acted. A blank result on a well known dealer is not proof of compliance, but a hit on a dealer is a strong signal to walk away.

A case the CFTC pursued: the 2020 JPMorgan spoofing order

The scale of what the agency can reach is easier to grasp with a concrete case. On September 29, 2020 the CFTC entered an order against JPMorgan Chase and two subsidiaries. It cited "hundreds of thousands of orders to buy or sell certain gold, silver, platinum, palladium, Treasury note, and Treasury bond futures contracts with the intent to cancel those orders prior to execution." The conduct spanned at least 2008 to 2016.

The total relief the order required was 920.2 million dollars. The agency broke the number into three pieces. Restitution to injured market participants of 311,737,008 dollars. Disgorgement of profits earned through the misconduct of 172,034,790 dollars. A civil monetary penalty of 436,431,811 dollars. It was the largest monetary relief the CFTC had ever imposed in a metals case at that time (source: CFTC Release 8260-20).

Then-CFTC Chairman Heath P. Tarbert stated the standard plainly in the release: "Spoofing is illegal, pure and simple." That framing matters for retail savers because it defines the ceiling on how far the agency will reach. Federal action pulled nearly a billion dollars from one of the largest banks in the world for manipulating metals futures. A retail sales script that promises a specific silver or platinum price outcome sits far outside any legitimate reading of the market.

The order is worth reading in full. It shows how the enforcement side of the market looks when the agency brings a case. The document itself is short by federal standards. A curious reader can work through it in an hour and get a working sense of what the agency treats as manipulation. For sibling case detail, see CFTC and SEC enforcement actions in precious metals.

The SEC and investment contracts around metals

The Securities and Exchange Commission is the second federal layer. Its jurisdiction runs over securities, not physical commodities. A one ounce American Silver Eagle sitting in an approved depository is not a security. Neither is a plain gold bar held in the physical possession of an IRS-approved trustee. Straight bullion sales through licensed dealers rarely see the SEC.

Where the agency comes in is around the metal, not through it. Certain "self-directed IRA" arrangements promise a return that depends on the promoter's efforts, on a leveraged strategy, or on a pooled arrangement that resembles a fund. Under the Howey test, that combination can turn the arrangement into an investment contract, which is a security. The SEC's Division of Enforcement has civil authority when it does (source: SEC Division of Enforcement).

The agency's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has repeatedly warned retail savers about self-directed IRA fraud in general and about arrangements that pair metals with promises of guaranteed returns in particular. The plain investor guidance at investor.gov is written for exactly the audience most bad actors target (source: SEC investor.gov, How to Avoid Fraud).

The SEC's enforcement archive is searchable by company name on sec.gov. A search on any operator that markets a metals arrangement should return either nothing, in which case the operator is at least not on the public record, or a specific case number a saver can read for context. The EDGAR filing system is a further search surface if the operator has ever filed anything as an issuer of securities.

The FTC and consumer marketing enforcement

The Federal Trade Commission is the third federal layer, and the one that most often reaches the retail bullion channel directly. Its jurisdiction runs over deceptive and unfair marketing under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Its authority does not depend on whether the coin is a security or a commodity. Any dealer that markets bullion or coins to retail customers falls inside the FTC's reach.

The agency's consumer advice on investing in bullion and bullion coins is written in plain language and targets exactly the pitches most retirement savers encounter. It warns about pushed "collector" or "premium" coins whose prices exceed the underlying metal by wide margins. It also flags pitches that pair a metals sale with a rollover of retirement funds, and the difficulty of recovering the markup on resale (source: FTC Consumer Advice, Investing in Bullion and Bullion Coins).

The FTC's Endorsement Guides also apply to the review site and affiliate ecosystem around gold and silver IRAs. Any material connection between a reviewer and the company being ranked has to be disclosed clearly and above the fold. A review site that ranks a company as "top rated" without a visible disclosure is failing the guide the agency actually enforces (source: FTC Endorsement Guides, what people are asking).

Like the CFTC and SEC, the FTC posts its actions on a searchable public page. The docket includes settlements, consent orders, and administrative complaints against specific companies. See how to spot fake precious metals review sites for the specific pattern this agency's endorsement guides address.

Where statute meets the commodity market

One point that trips up new savers is worth spelling out. Internal Revenue Code section 408(m)(3)(B), the tax rule that defines what bullion an IRA can hold, does not fix its own purity numbers. The statute points at the minimum fineness a contract market requires for delivery in satisfaction of a regulated futures contract. That contract market is defined at section 5 of the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. 7 (source: Cornell LII, 26 U.S.C. section 408).

The tax code, in other words, points directly at the commodity futures markets the CFTC oversees. The commonly cited minimums, gold .995, silver .999, platinum and palladium .9995, are the commodity contract market standards the statute references. Any IRA bullion below those minimums does not qualify, and the metal cannot enter the account at a compliant custodian.

The American Gold, Silver, and Platinum Eagles qualify through a separate carve-out. The tax code lists specific United States coins under 31 U.S.C. section 5112 as eligible even when the coin's fineness sits below the bullion minimum. The Gold Eagle at 22 karats, .9167 fine, is the classic example (source: IRS Investments in Collectibles Issue Snapshot).

The statutory list stops at four metals. Rhodium and iridium are not in the enumeration in section 408(m)(3)(B). A dealer that offers to add either to an IRA fails the test at the eligibility layer, not at the price layer. There is no legal path for it. See why rhodium and iridium are not IRA-eligible and why .999 matters.

The three agencies side by side

The scope of each agency's authority is easier to remember as a table. The version below lists the statutory footing, the conduct type, and the tools each agency reaches for on the enforcement side. It is a rough map, not a legal opinion, but it is enough to point a saver at the right search box before signing anything.

Sources: CFTC precious metals fraud advisory; SEC Division of Enforcement; FTC Consumer Advice, bullion and coins; IRS Investments in Collectibles Issue Snapshot. Checked June 2026.

The IRS row is included because it comes up in every conversation about precious metals IRAs, even though the IRS is not a policing agency in the enforcement sense the other three are. Its role is compliance rather than fraud enforcement. A metal that fails IRC 408(m) triggers a tax event, not a securities or commodities enforcement action.

How to check public enforcement records yourself

The following short walkthrough uses only the public web. Every step is free. A reader can run through the sequence for a specific dealer in about twenty minutes. It should be run before any funds move, not after the sales call has already framed the decision.

1. Search the CFTC enforcement page for the company name. Go to cftc.gov, use the top navigation to reach the Enforcement section, and search for the specific legal entity, not just the trade name. Note any press releases, orders, or consent agreements that come back.
2. Search the SEC's Litigation Releases and EDGAR system for the same name. The Litigation Releases index on sec.gov holds civil enforcement filings. EDGAR at sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar surfaces any filings the entity has ever made as an issuer or a registered party.
3. Search the FTC action database for the company name. Go to ftc.gov, use the Cases and Proceedings search, and check whether the entity or any related party has been named in a consumer protection matter.
4. Check the FINRA BrokerCheck system. BrokerCheck at brokercheck.finra.org holds registration and disciplinary information on brokers and firms. A metals dealer that also sells securities will show up here.
5. Pull the Better Business Bureau profile. Search bbb.org for the specific legal entity and read the complaints, not just the star average. Focus on unresolved complaints about undelivered metal, undisclosed spreads, and aggressive coin substitution.

A clean result on all five is a minimum, not a proof of quality. It means the operator has not yet been caught doing something the record surfaces. A hit on any single search is a signal to slow down, read the filing, and consider stopping the transaction while the record is fresh. See how to read BBB complaints about precious metals dealers for the specific patterns worth watching in the complaints text.

State regulators, FINRA, and the BBB

Federal agencies are not the only layer. Every state has an attorney general who can bring consumer protection actions under state statutes, and most states have a securities division that regulates investment offerings within the state. Some of the most colorful precious metals enforcement in recent years has come from state offices, not from Washington.

FINRA is a self regulatory organization for the securities industry. Its Investor Alerts include a page on precious metals fraud that reads a lot like the FTC and CFTC advisories, with the added weight of enforcement authority over registered broker-dealers (source: FINRA, Investment Fraud: Precious Metals). A metals dealer that is also a registered broker-dealer sits inside FINRA's reach.

The Better Business Bureau is not a regulator. It publishes profiles and complaint histories for accredited and non-accredited businesses, and it maintains a widely used rating scale. Its profile is one of the few places a saver can read specific customer complaints about undelivered metal, undisclosed spreads, or aggressive substitution before signing anything. Treat the rating letter as one input among many, not as a final verdict on compliance.

A worked example of vetting a specific claim

Picture a sales representative who states that "no gold IRA dealer has ever been sanctioned by the CFTC." The claim is verifiable. A saver on a laptop should be able to confirm or refute it inside ten minutes. The exercise below shows the sequence.

Why fee arithmetic sits alongside enforcement records

Enforcement is one layer of protection. Fee arithmetic is the other. Even a fully compliant metals IRA carries running costs that erode small or short horizon balances, and those costs are the room most bad actors work in. Running the drag before the pitch decides whether the account can succeed at all, before any conversation about a specific dealer.

The calculator below estimates how annual fees compound against a precious metals IRA. Enter a balance and a fee rate to see the drag on a hypothetical account.

The calculator is illustrative. It does not price any specific provider and it does not predict a metal price. Its purpose is to make the fixed cost math visible so any headline can be read against arithmetic. Small accounts and short horizons rarely survive a wide dealer spread, regardless of how clean the enforcement record on the dealer looks.

See silver IRA fees explained for the anatomy of each fee line, and the scam pattern catalog for the specific pitches this arithmetic tends to expose.

When walking away is the right call

Not every metals pitch that survives an enforcement search is worth funding. Some situations describe savers where the enforcement layer is beside the point, because the underlying transaction was never going to work under any provider. There is no CTA in this section, on purpose.

• The dealer will not name the custodian and the depository in writing. The three party structure is required by statute. Any refusal to name the parties is a bigger red flag than a blank enforcement record is a green one.
• The pitch pairs a metals IRA with home storage or a checkbook LLC. Federal law bans it. See why home storage is not allowed and the McNulty case detail.
• The rollover balance is small against the fixed fee stack. A 20,000 dollar account facing 300 dollars of fixed fees carries 1.5 percent of drag before any spread. Enforcement history does not change that math.
• Money may be needed within a few years. A dealer spread is crossed twice, once in and once out. A short horizon plus the 10 percent federal additional tax under age 59.5 usually settles the question.
• The pitch promises a specific price outcome. No provider can honestly do that, regardless of the enforcement page. Regulators have acted on that exact pattern.
• The pitch pushes rhodium or iridium. The statute does not allow them. Enforcement is not the missing piece; the statute is.

Any single item on that list is enough to end the call. Two together end it faster. A saver already inside an account under a script that hits several items should call the custodian directly and ask for the compliance department, not the sales team. That is the department paid to fix the problems the sales desk created, and it is often the shortest path to a clean resolution for the account holder or a surviving spouse or heir.

Policing questions, answered

Which federal agency has the most authority over precious metals markets?

The CFTC handles the derivatives markets and the retail leveraged channel. The SEC handles investment contracts around metals. The FTC handles marketing. No single agency has the whole picture, and every serious enforcement chapter over the past decade has involved at least two of the three, sometimes with state offices alongside.

Is a physical gold or silver purchase a security?

Generally no. Straight bullion sold through a licensed dealer to a retail buyer is a commodity, not a security. The picture changes when the purchase is bundled with a return promise, an operator-driven strategy, or a pool of similar arrangements. Under the Howey test, that combination can turn the arrangement into an investment contract, at which point SEC jurisdiction attaches.

What did the CFTC actually do to JPMorgan in 2020?

On September 29, 2020 the agency entered an order requiring 920.2 million dollars in total relief for spoofing across gold, silver, platinum, and palladium futures. The relief broke into 311.7 million dollars of restitution, 172.0 million dollars of disgorgement, and a 436.4 million dollar civil monetary penalty. The conduct spanned at least 2008 through 2016.

How do I look up a specific dealer’s enforcement record?

Search cftc.gov, sec.gov, and ftc.gov for the specific legal entity name, not only the trade name. Search FINRA BrokerCheck if the operator is registered as a broker-dealer. Pull the Better Business Bureau profile for the entity and read the complaints. State attorney general enforcement pages are worth a search as well, particularly in large states.

Can regulators guarantee the price of a metal will rise or fall?

No, and any pitch that suggests otherwise is failing the standard the regulators actually enforce. Federal agencies police conduct, not prices. Their advisories, cases, and consent orders address manipulation, fraud, deceptive marketing, and failure to deliver metal that was sold, not future price direction.

What is the IRS’s role in all of this?

The IRS enforces tax compliance, not fraud. Its authority around precious metals IRAs sits in IRC section 408(m), the collectibles rule, and the physical possession requirement for IRA bullion. A metal that fails those rules triggers a taxable deemed distribution and, under age 59.5, a 10 percent additional tax. The remedy is tax based, not a fine on the dealer.

Do state regulators actually bring precious metals cases?

Yes. State attorneys general and state securities divisions have brought some of the more notable retail metals actions of the past decade, sometimes ahead of federal action, sometimes in parallel with it. A saver evaluating a specific dealer should include state enforcement pages in the search sequence, especially in the state where the dealer is headquartered.

Does a clean enforcement record mean a dealer is safe?

It means the operator has not yet been caught doing something the public record surfaces. That is a floor, not a ceiling. The full vetting sequence also includes a written fee schedule, per-product dealer spreads, an IRA-eligibility confirmation from the custodian, and a verified depository facility. Enforcement history is one of several inputs, not a substitute for the paperwork.