Two gas traders were sentenced to prison yesterday for reporting false gas trading data to industry publications in order to control gas markets. Michelle Valencia, a former Dynegy trader, faces a 57-month sentence on seven counts of wire fraud. Greg Singleton, formerly with El Paso Corp., received a 28-month sentence on a single count. Valencia and Singleton were charged with violating the Commodity Exchange Act by trying to influence gas markets through false price reporting to Platts' Inside FERC's Gas Market Report and Natural Gas Intelligence. The data is used in indexes used to calculate the value of gas transactions. Meanwhile, a Russian court today rejected jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky's request for early release from an eight-year sentence for tax evasion and fraud. Khodorkovsky, who headed the Yukos oil company and was once Russia's richest man, has spent almost five years in jail. He was sentenced in 2005 to an eight-year term and has been eligible for parole for the past 10 months. Khodorkovsky was ineligible for parole because he had refused to undertake professional training at his prison, which specializes in sewing.