If that’s the case, which I suspect it is, there is also the element of fraud involved.
This happened with JPM about two years ago when they got caught naked-shorting gold sales. They thought they were just selling contracts to a customer in Europe but the customer, rather than just wanting the paper to turn around and resell, demanded delivery. JPM never had it because they were running a naked-short and they were caught and should have been brought up on charges. Of course, they and their commie cousins in the White House figured a way out of the jam without having to do jail time.
IIRC the Hunt brothers were on the other side of a deal like this and ended with more then a haircut.