June 17 (Reuters) – A unit of global commodities trader Trafigura has agreed to pay a $55 million civil fine to settle U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges of fraud, manipulation and impeding whistleblower communications.

Trafigura Trading LLC, a Houston firm that is part of Trafigura Beheer BV, violated U.S. law and regulations by trading gasoline with material nonpublic information, by manipulating an oil pricing benchmark and by requiring current and former employees to sign agreements that barred them from sharing company information, including with regulators, the CFTC said in a statement on Monday.