CME – Financial Treason & Crime

Liz Kiesche, 11 June 2021

Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys, favoring U.S. exchange operators that are shifting toward recurring revenue and benefiting from secular tailwinds, initiates coverage of Nasdaq (NDAQ +2.3%) at Overweight, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE +0.5%) and CME Global (CME +0.5%) at Equal-Weight, and Cboe Global (CBOE -0.2%) at Underweight.

Sees upside from NDAQ’s move to catch tailwinds from data and analytics, ESG and anti-financial crime, and index segments. Continue reading “Article: Morgan Stanley gives Nasdaq bullish rating on tailwinds strategy shift”

05/25/202105/27/2021

Article: Traders Shouldn’t Get Prison Time in Spoofing Case, Probation Office Says

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Traders Shouldn’t Get Prison Time in Spoofing Case, Probation Office Says

Dave Michaels, 25 May 2021

WASHINGTON—Two former Deutsche Bank traders convicted of manipulating precious-metals prices shouldn’t go to prison, federal probation officers recommended, sparking a backlash from prosecutors who sought terms of almost five years or more.

A federal jury in September convicted James Vorley and Cedric Chanu of wire fraud after a two-week trial over their trading of gold and silver on futures exchanges operated by CME Group Inc. Prosecutors alleged the pair engaged in spoofing, a type of rapid-fire market manipulation that traders and regulators say was once rampant in futures markets. Continue reading “Article: Traders Shouldn’t Get Prison Time in Spoofing Case, Probation Office Says”

05/11/2021

Article: Is This The Beginning Of The End Of Naked Short Selling In Canada?

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Is This The Beginning Of The End Of Naked Short Selling In Canada?

James Stafford, 11 May 2021

Finally, after years of watching dubious short-sellers manipulate stocks and destroy companies, Canadian regulators are ready to do something about it, and unscrupulous short-sellers who have been living lives of obnoxious luxury paid for by ordinary shareholders have every reason to worry.

The only question now is whether the Canadian regulators have the teeth to follow through.

The first move came in January 2021, when the Ontario Capital Markets Modernization Task Force recommended a new prohibition against “misleading or untrue statements” about public companies. Why? Because Canadian markets are being threatened severely by “short and distort” and “pump and dump” campaigns. The same legislation was already enacted in British Columbia. Continue reading “Article: Is This The Beginning Of The End Of Naked Short Selling In Canada?”

04/24/2021

Article: End of Libor stirs anger on Wall Street

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End of Libor stirs anger on Wall Street

JOHN DIZARD , 24 April 2021

Ending the use of dollar Libor, the scandal-tinged benchmark bank funding rate, was always going to be problematic. Some Libor traders went to jail for collusion and self-enrichment. The Fed and its fellow regulators put together a public-private committee on Libor replacement big enough to swamp a ferry boat.

That hasn’t entirely worked. The use of Libor as a base rate for funding costs is bigger than ever — around $225tn of derivatives, consumer loans, corporate loans and cash investments. Nevertheless, the use of Libor is supposed to end, mostly, on December 31 for some Libor rates and by mid-2023 for those remaining.

The process of finding practical ways to replace it have led to increasingly audible shouting and blame trading between the major dealing banks and the Fed, along with the central bank’s entourage of agencies, academics, policy wonks and whisperers. Continue reading “Article: End of Libor stirs anger on Wall Street”

04/10/202104/11/2021

Article: JPMORGAN EYEING BITCOIN’S CONTANGO, RELEASES BULLISH REPORT

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JPMORGAN EYEING BITCOIN’S CONTANGO, RELEASES BULLISH REPORT

DYLAN LECLAIR, 10 April 2021

In a report titled “Why Is The Bitcoin Futures Curve So Steep?” JPMorgan Chase analysts examined the growing futures and derivatives market surrounding bitcoin, provided insights as to why the contango is so steep and explored what the future holds for the monetary asset as it becomes increasingly financialized.

Here are some of the highlights from the report. Continue reading “Article: JPMORGAN EYEING BITCOIN’S CONTANGO, RELEASES BULLISH REPORT”

03/31/202104/01/2021

Article: WA rancher Easterday pleads guilty to stealing $244M in ‘ghost cattle’ scam

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WA rancher Easterday pleads guilty to stealing $244M in ‘ghost cattle’ scam

KRISTIN M. KRAEMER, 31 March 2021

The president of one of the largest agricultural operations in Washington state has admitted concocting a scheme to defraud Tyson Foods and another company out of more than $244 million.

Cody A. Easterday, 49, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in a case that federal prosecutors are calling a “ghost-cattle scam.”

Easterday, who’s also chief executive officer of Easterday Ranches Inc., charged the two companies under various agreements for the costs of buying and feeding 200,000 cattle, when those cattle did not actually exist, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. Continue reading “Article: WA rancher Easterday pleads guilty to stealing $244M in ‘ghost cattle’ scam”

03/16/202103/22/2021

Article: Exchange leaders say GameStop saga highlights regulatory challenges

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Exchange leaders say GameStop saga highlights regulatory challenges

John McCrank, 16 March 2021

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The recent trading frenzy around GameStop Corp and other so-called “meme” stocks highlights shortcomings and challenges in the U.S. markets as retail investors become a bigger presence, exchange leaders said on Tuesday.

“The regulatory structure of the U.S. equity markets, in my mind, is flawed,” Jeff Sprecher, chief executive of New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc, said on a panel at the Future Industry Association’s virtual FIA Boca conference.

Regulators have focused on competition between market intermediaries, like brokers and exchanges, rather than between buyers and sellers seeking to get the best prices, and the GameStop event exposed issues with that structure, he said.

In January, retail investors coordinated through social media forums in an attempt to punish hedge funds by buying shares of GameStop and other heavily shorted names, driving up their prices and forcing short sellers to close out positions at big losses.

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05/10/202005/17/2020

Subject: Scott Johnston

Subject of Interest

Scott Johnston is the Chief Administrative Officer of Citadel. Prior to becoming CAO in 2018, Scott served as Chief Operating Officer of Citadel Securities. Scott joined Citadel Securities in 2017 from Tower Research Capital, where he was a partner and COO responsible for business development, operations and business management. Prior to joining Tower, he was Managing Director and Chief Information Officer at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), responsible for GLOBEX and clearing technology. During his time at the CME. Scott is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Continue reading “Subject: Scott Johnston”

10/21/201905/24/2020

Article: Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Must Face Spoofing Case, Judge Says

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Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Must Face Spoofing Case, Judge Says

Janan Hanna

Bloomberg, 21 October 2019

The criminal case against two former Deutsche Bank AG employees accused of fraudulent and manipulative precious-metals trading can proceed, after a federal judge on Monday rejected their request for dismissal.

U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp in Chicago said prosecutors had properly used the wire-fraud statute to charge James Vorley and Cedric Chanu with spoofing, part of an alleged multiyear scheme to defraud other traders on the Commodity Exchange Inc., a venue run by CME Group Inc.’s Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Read full article.

09/25/201903/29/2021

Article: ‘Striking’ Bitcoin Market Manipulation Revealed

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‘Striking’ Bitcoin Market Manipulation Revealed

Billy Bambrough, 25 September 2019

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets are in turmoil tonight after the disappointing launch of the hotly-anticipated Bakkt crypto platform.

The bitcoin price shed 15% of its value this week, with some of its biggest rivals including ethereum, Ripple’s XRP, litecoin, and bitcoin cash, recording losses as high as 22% as investors balked at Bakkt’s low bitcoin trading volume.

Now, new research has warned of a “striking systematic trend” in bitcoin price movements, with bitcoin falling far further than average ahead of CME’s bitcoin futures contracts being settled each month. Continue reading “Article: ‘Striking’ Bitcoin Market Manipulation Revealed”

01/27/201803/17/2021

Article: U.S. CFTC to fine UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC for spoofing, manipulation: sources

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U.S. CFTC to fine UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC for spoofing, manipulation: sources

Reuters, 27 January 2018

The U.S. derivatives regulator is set to announce it has fined European lenders UBS, HSBC and Deutsche Bank millions of dollars each for so-called “spoofing” and manipulation in the U.S. futures market, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The enforcement action by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is the result of a multi-agency investigation that also involves the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – the first of its kind for the CFTC, the people said.

The fines for UBS and Deutsche Bank will be upward of ten million, while the fine for HSBC will be slightly less than that, the people said, without providing exact figures. Continue reading “Article: U.S. CFTC to fine UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC for spoofing, manipulation: sources”

06/02/201705/24/2020

Article: Former Deutsche Bank trader banned for ‘spoofing’

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Former Deutsche Bank trader banned for ‘spoofing’

Dave Michaels

MarketWatch, 2 June 2017

A former futures trader at Deutsche Bank AG was permanently barred from the industry after admitting he conspired to manipulate the price of gold and silver futures contracts.

David Liew, a trader who was based in Singapore, also pleaded guilty in federal criminal court in Illinois on Thursday to using illegal spoofing techniques from 2009 to 2012. Regulators and prosecutors have cracked down on spoofing, which involves sending fake offers intended to push prices in a direction that benefits the trader’s other orders. Congress made it illegal through the 2010 Dodd Frank financial overhaul law.

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