Commodity regulators in Washington on Thursday accused a Dutch trading company of manipulating the prices of crude oil, heating oil and gasoline over an 11-day period last year.

The scheme, which the defendants referred to in conversations caught on tape as a plan to “bully the market,” produced illegal profits of more than $1 million, according to regulators. On at least five occasions, global benchmark prices of those products settled at artificial levels, they said.

Though the price movements were small and the scheme was detected within days, the case is still likely to resonate in Washington. The Senate has been debating proposals to tackle high oil prices by curbing market speculation  and lawmakers, at more than 40 hearings this year, have repeatedly demanded tougher enforcement by market regulators.

Unlike many manipulation cases, which typically involve obscure commodities in less-liquid markets, this complaint accuses the defendants of affecting, however briefly, the final prices in important energy markets that are generally considered too big to manipulate.