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Article: VIDEO — Ed Steer: Silver Market on a Knife’s Edge

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VIDEO — Ed Steer: Silver Market on a Knife’s Edge

Charlotte McLeod , 13 April 2021

The silver squeeze first started making headlines more than two months ago, but the movement continues today, led by retail investors who continue to snap up physical metal.

Ed Steer of Ed Steer’s Gold and Silver Digest said that while he commends those who have been buying physical silver, there’s a reason their efforts haven’t led to a sustained silver price increase.

“They’re certainly having an impact … as far as the physical market is concerned, but as far as the short position that exists in the COMEX futures market, it doesn’t make any difference at all,” he said. Continue reading “Article: VIDEO — Ed Steer: Silver Market on a Knife’s Edge”

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Article: Tech and Crime Series: Has the FCA bitten off more than it can chew with its NatWest Prosecution?

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Tech and Crime Series: Has the FCA bitten off more than it can chew with its NatWest Prosecution?

Thomas Cattee, 13 April 2021

News broke on Tuesday 16 March 2021 that the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) has started criminal proceedings against NatWest Bank (“NatWest”) for alleged offences relating to the adequacy of procedures in place to prevent money laundering.

These proceedings are in respect of offences under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (the “2007 Regulations”). It is alleged that between 11 November 2011 and 19 October 2016 NatWest failed to adhere to the requirements of regulations 8(1), 8(3) and 14(1) of the 2007 Regulations. Continue reading “Article: Tech and Crime Series: Has the FCA bitten off more than it can chew with its NatWest Prosecution?”

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Article: HSBC reportedly blacklists MicroStrategy’s stock for investing in Bitcoin

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HSBC reportedly blacklists MicroStrategy’s stock for investing in Bitcoin

OSATO AVAN-NOMAYO, 09 April 2021

Buying MicroStrategy stock is reportedly no longer possible for HSBC customers on the bank’s online trading platform — HSBC InvestDirect, or HIDC.

According to a supposed message from the bank to its customers, HSBC has directed users that already own MicroStrategy stock not to buy additional shares.

Twitter user Camiam claimed to have received such a message from the banking giant on March 29: Continue reading “Article: HSBC reportedly blacklists MicroStrategy’s stock for investing in Bitcoin”

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Article: Citibank Faces New Forex Rigging Suit From Currency Trader

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Citibank Faces New Forex Rigging Suit From Currency Trader

Joanne Faulkner, 29 March 2021

Citibank has become the latest bank to be sued by a British currency investment firm over allegations that its traders manipulated foreign exchange markets for profit, in the expanding litigation accusing the company of trade front-running.

ECU Group PLC alleges in an amended March 10 High Court claim, which was recently made public, that traders at Citibank NA misused its confidential information to make secret profits. They allegedly traded ahead of forex transactions by ECU clients, an illegal tactic known as front-running. Continue reading “Article: Citibank Faces New Forex Rigging Suit From Currency Trader”

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Article: Goldman Faces New Forex Rigging Suit From Currency Trader

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Goldman Faces New Forex Rigging Suit From Currency Trader

Richard Crump, 12 March 2021

Goldman Sachs is being sued in London over allegations that its traders manipulated foreign exchange markets for profit, in the latest lawsuit filed by a British currency investment firm over trade front-running.

ECU Group alleges that traders at Goldman Sachs International misused its confidential information to make secret profits by trading ahead of foreign exchange transactions by the British company, an illegal tactic known as front-running, according to the High Court claim filed in November but only recently made public. Continue reading “Article: Goldman Faces New Forex Rigging Suit From Currency Trader”

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Article: Banks Can Argue Funds Passed On UK Forex Rigging Losses

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Banks Can Argue Funds Passed On UK Forex Rigging Losses

Christopher Crosby, 25 February 2021

Institutional investors suing some of the world’s largest banks for manipulating the foreign exchange market will have to prove their losses were not passed on to others after a London court ruled on Thursday that the issue has to be determined at trial.

Nigel Teare, sitting as a judge at the High Court, refused to knock down the legal defense raised by Barclays, CitiBank, HSBC and other lenders to fight claims for damages for allegedly manipulating benchmark rates in the forex market.. Continue reading “Article: Banks Can Argue Funds Passed On UK Forex Rigging Losses”

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Article: Five Banks Settle LIBOR Manipulation Suit for $22 Million

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Five Banks Settle LIBOR Manipulation Suit for $22 Million

Meg Slachetka, 13 October 2020

Last week, Judge Naomi Buchwald of the Southern District of New York provided final approval of a nearly $22 million settlement between a class of indirect investors and five Wall Street banks that the plaintiff investors accused of manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) in violation of the Sherman Act. The plaintiffs are over-the-counter (OTC) investors who indirectly interacted with the defendant banks via interest rate swaps and other transactions.

These plaintiffs made purchases from other banks that are not defendants in the case; the five settling defendants are JPMorgan, Citibank, Bank of America, HSBC, and Barclays. The suit is one of many filed after Barclays admitted in 2012 that it had manipulated LIBOR. Continue reading “Article: Five Banks Settle LIBOR Manipulation Suit for $22 Million”

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Article: Dirty Money, Criminal Cash: Bank Leaks Allege Vast Scale of Global Fraud

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Dirty Money, Criminal Cash: Bank Leaks Allege Vast Scale of Global Fraud

Henry Ridgwell, 20 September 2020

Leaked documents allege that some of the world’s largest banks have allowed $2 trillion worth of suspicious or fraudulent activity to take place, including money laundering for criminal gangs and terrorists.

The so-called “FinCEN Files” consist of more than 2,000 Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, sent by banks to the U.S. Treasury, alerting the authorities to possible criminal activity, from 1999 and 2017. The files were leaked to Buzzfeed and shared with a global network of investigative journalists. Continue reading “Article: Dirty Money, Criminal Cash: Bank Leaks Allege Vast Scale of Global Fraud”

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Article: FinCEN Files: HSBC moved Ponzi scheme millions despite warning

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FinCEN Files: HSBC moved Ponzi scheme millions despite warning

FinCEN Files reporting team, 20 September 2020

Britain’s biggest bank moved the money through its US business to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014. Its role in the $80m (£62m) fraud is detailed in a leak of documents – banks’ “suspicious activity reports” – that have been called the FinCEN Files.

HSBC says it has always met its legal duties on reporting such activity. The files show the investment scam started soon after the bank was fined $1.9bn (£1.4bn) in the US over money laundering. It had promised to clamp down on these sorts of practices. Continue reading “Article: FinCEN Files: HSBC moved Ponzi scheme millions despite warning”

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Subject: Mark McCombe

Subject of Interest

Mark McCombe is a member of BlackRock’s Global Executive Committee. He is a Senior Managing Director and is the Chief Client Officer of BlackRock overseeing all Global client segments. Before joining BlackRock, he served as Chief Executive Officer in Hong Kong for HSBC. McCombe has served on a number of finance industry bodies including the Risk Management Committee of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, the Banking Advisory Committee for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Hong Kong Association of Banks, and as a council member of the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC). McCombe earned an MA degree from Aberdeen University and attended Wharton Business School, where he completed the Advanced Management Program.

Biography

Black Rock, Inc 

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Article: It’s a ‘Swimming Naked’ Moment: The Financial System Has a Real Test

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It’s a ‘Swimming Naked’ Moment: The Financial System Has a Real Test

James B. Stewart

New York Times, 10 March 2020

The investor Warren Buffett once gave a famous warning: “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”

The tide has just gone out again, and clues to who’s been swimming naked have begun to emerge.

Mr. Buffett first made that comment in 1992, after Hurricane Andrew exposed the inadequacies of the insurance industry, to describe the rosy appearances that can mask financial recklessness until the good times end.

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Article: US Authorities Build Case Against JP Morgan Over Market Manipulation For Precious Metals

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US Authorities Build Case Against JP Morgan Over Market Manipulation For Precious Metals

Mike Papantonio, 29 February 2020

Via America’s Lawyer: RT correspondent Michele Greenstein joins Mike Papantonio to walk us through a developing criminal case against bank behemoth JPMorgan, which is being accused yet again of manipulating precious metals markets for the express profit of its own clients and investors.

Mike Papantonio: Federal prosecutors are turning their attention towards bank behemoth JP Morgan, which is accused of manipulating gold and silver prices for the benefit of their clients and their shareholders. Michele Greenstein joins me now to explain what’s happening with this case. First off, run us through these allegations, Michele, you’ve covered this story a fair amount. It’s, it’s a story that again, corporate media isn’t covering this one. What is your take on this story?

Michele Greenstein: Well, US authorities are building a case, although formal accusations have not been made against the bank, but according to two people who are familiar with the matter who spoke with Bloomberg news, US authorities, like we said, are building a criminal case against JP Morgan. Now both the bank and the DOJ declined to comment, but a bank spokesperson did confirm that the DOJ is investigating “trading practices in the metal market and related conduct.” So Pap, what we’re talking about here is metal market manipulation that is intentionally misleading or spoofing members of the metals market. So gold, silver, platinum, palladium, all of these are the precious metals, right? And what market manipulation looks like is this.

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Article: Hound of Hounslow: Who is Navinder Sarao, the ‘flash crash trader’?

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Hound of Hounslow: Who is Navinder Sarao, the ‘flash crash trader’?

Andy Verity & Eleanor Lawrie, 28 January 2020

Former stock market trader Navinder Sarao has been sentenced to a year of home detention for helping trigger a brief $1tn (£770bn) stock market crash.

Dubbed the “Hound of Hounslow” in an ironic reference to the famous “Wolf of Wall Street” fraudster, the Briton was shown leniency by a Chicago judge due to the extraordinary circumstances of his case.

But who is he – and how did he help cause markets to plunge almost 4,000 miles away? Continue reading “Article: Hound of Hounslow: Who is Navinder Sarao, the ‘flash crash trader’?”

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Article: UK banks fined €1bn by EU for rigging foreign exchange market

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UK banks fined €1bn by EU for rigging foreign exchange market

Kalyeena Makortoff, 16 May 2019

Five banks including Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have been fined more than €1bn (£875m) by the European Union for rigging the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market.

The European commission said the banks, which also include Citigroup, JP Morgan and MUFG (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), formed two cartels to manipulate the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies, including the US dollar, the euro and the pound.

The commission’s penalty adds to the £1.3bn in fines imposed by the UK Financial Conduct Authority in 2014 over the same case. While the FCA’s penalty focused on the lender’s breach of regulations, the EU’s fine deals with how their behaviour dampened competition.

“These cartel decisions send a clear message that the commission will not tolerate collusive behaviour in any sector of the financial markets,” the European competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said in a statement.

The banking industry has been hit with billions in fines worldwide over the last decade for rigging benchmarks used in many day-to-day financial transactions, and are now at risk of private lawsuits.

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Article: Credit Suisse charged with rigging foreign exchange rates

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Credit Suisse charged with rigging foreign exchange rates

Reuters Staff, 01 August 2018

Credit Suisse has been charged by European Union antitrust regulators with rigging foreign exchange rates, the Swiss bank said on Tuesday, a sign that the five-year long EU investigation may reach a conclusion in the coming months.

Credit Suisse said in its quarterly report it received notification from the European Commission on July 26 alleging that it “engaged in anticompetitive practices in connection with its foreign exchange trading business”. EU enforcers typically lay out charges of illegal activities conducted by companies before imposing fines which can reach 10 percent of their global turnover. Continue reading “Article: Credit Suisse charged with rigging foreign exchange rates”