Law360, New York (January 27, 2016, 10:35 AM EST) -- Open-market manipulation cases present difficult issues regarding what constitutes market manipulation. Regulators, such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, tend to focus on the element of intent. Defendants frequently argue that the transactions claimed to be manipulative are lawful in and of themselves and therefore cannot be manipulative. Courts tend to struggle with these cases, searching for the dividing line between the lawful and the unlawful. While the statutes on which the charges are typically based vary, many trace back to Exchange Act Section 10(b) and/or are based on concepts that flow from cases interpreting that section. One of recent examples of these cases is CFTC v. Kraft Foods Group Inc., Civil Action No. 1:15-cv-02881 (N.D. Ill.)....