TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- The front-month contract for crude-oil futures fell below $82 per barrel on Globex late Monday afternoon in Asia, extending recent declines to touch its lowest level in three weeks on continued concerns over U.S. regulators' fraud charge against Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Crude for May delivery, the front-month contract, fell $1.49 to $81.75 per barrel in electronic trading on Globex. It touched a low of $81.66 so far in Globex trading, the lowest intraday level the contract has seen since March 26, according to data from FactSet Research.

June crude, the most active contract, was last down $1.14 at $83.53 per barrel on Globex.

Crude futures suffered from a big selloff Friday amid news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman Sachs, one of the largest commodities brokers, with fraud. Read complete story about Goldman Sachs.

May crude settled Friday at $83.24, down $2.27 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. See Friday's Futures Movers.

Oil prices were steady for most of last week but "things changed dramatically by Friday when the SEC blind-sided the markets by filing a civil complaint against Goldman Sachs, accusing the firm of misrepresenting sub-prime securities to investors," Edward Meir, senior commodity analyst at MF Global, wrote in a note to clients Monday.

The company's stock plunged, "leading to broad-based weakness in the equity and commodity markets," he said.

Martin Hennecke, associate director at Tyche Group Ltd., pointed out that commodities in general were hit hard Friday not just because of the Goldman Sachs investigation, but also because that news "brought back investor fears about a return of the global financial/banking crisis."

"Coupled with the recent property-cooling measures of the Chinese government, this development has caused a sharp commodity price direction," he said.

Adding to the price pressure for the energy market was an unexpected decline in U.S. consumer confidence, according to analysts at Credit Suisse. "Faltering confidence could translate into lower U.S. consumer spending which in turn typically weighs on gasoline demand," they said in a research note issued Monday.