Allenberg Cotton isn't commenting on a report that details a major shake-up at the Memphis-based cotton merchandising firm.
Reuters reports that Joseph T. Nicosia, Allenberg's longtime chief executive, will step out of the role and be succeeded by former cotton division president Anthony Tancredi, who left the company more than a month ago.
The wire service attributed the information to a single source, who was not named.
An Allenberg official said Monday morning the company had no comment on the story.
More details, however, could emerge later this week as Nicosia is scheduled to speak at an International Cotton Association conference in Hong Kong on Friday.
Cotton industry sources believe Nicosia may move up in Allenberg parent company, Amsterdam-based Louis Dreyfus.
The privately held commodity giant tends to keep a tight rein on communications, choosing not to publicize any deals, business transactions or staffing changes.
But the company cracks the door once a year with Nicosia's always-packed presentation at the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show, in which he reviews the previous year in cotton markets in general and gives a forecast for the next year.
The reported change up comes as the company is the target of a number of federal lawsuits, since consolidated, that accuse Allenberg and Louis Dreyfus of illegally manipulating the cotton market in 2011.
In the first of the lawsuits, filed June 29, Mark Allen, a former senior trader at Glencore, alleged that Louis Dreyfus and its affiliated companies held the May and July 2011 futures contracts until they expired, even though there was cheaper cotton available on the spot market.
Filed by traders in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the lawsuits also named Nicosia and another Dreyfus company, Term Commodities. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission opened an investigation of the 2011 activity earlier this year.