Tag: HSBC

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Article: Ex-UBS trader beats market manipulation charge

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Ex-UBS trader beats market manipulation charge

New York (AFP), 25 April 2018

Former UBS precious metals trader Andre Flotron was acquitted on Wednesday of market manipulation, a development that could spell trouble for similar cases against other Wall Street traders.

Authorities arrested Flotron late last year on charges he engaged in a Wall Street practice called “spoofing,” which involves placing and then immediately aborting trades to move prices. The acquittal follows January’s $46.6 million settlement with UBS, Deutsche Bank and HSBC over allegations traders at the banks worked to manipulate futures markets in precious metals between 2008 and early 2014.

Before this case, only three other people had ever been charged with “spoofing,” according to the Justice Department, a practice banned under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform legislation. Continue reading “Article: Ex-UBS trader beats market manipulation charge”

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Article: LIBOR, FX and Key Benchmark Rigging Claims against RBS, Barclays, HSBC & Lloyds set to Strengthen for Customers Mis-sold Derivatives

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LIBOR, FX and Key Benchmark Rigging Claims against RBS, Barclays, HSBC & Lloyds set to Strengthen for Customers Mis-sold Derivatives

Jaron Dosanjh, 09 March 2018

The door has been opened by the Court of Appeal in PAG v RBS [2018] for misrepresentation claims to be brought by a counter-party to a derivative which is linked to LIBOR, FX or key benchmark where the Swap is with a bank which has been found to have engaged in the manipulation of a benchmark.

This judgment is now the leading authority on claims concerning a customer’s ability to rescind contracts with a bank that has manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). Although this case focused on LIBOR-linked derivatives, the same principles will surely apply to other key benchmark rigging (including the manipulation of FX markets).

This decision will be of particular interest to customers that believe they have been mis-sold a Forex hedging products or a LIBOR-linked derivative. These customers of RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds Plc may potentially have grounds to rescind the derivative contract if the implied representations made by the banks are considered false due to regulatory findings of benchmark rigging. RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds Plc have all either undermined the integrity of LIBOR or have been fined for Forex failings.

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Article: Key to catching the traders charged with manipulating metals futures: electronic chatter

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Key to catching the traders charged with manipulating metals futures: electronic chatter

Francine McKenna

MarketWatch, 30 January 2018

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced criminal and civil enforcement actions on Monday against Deutsche Bank AG and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, UBS AG and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and six individuals involved in spoofing and stop loss collusion schemes. The criminal and civil enforcement actions were filed in conjunction with the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Criminal Investigative Division.

Deutsche Bank AG and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. were hit the hardest, agreeing to pay a $30 million penalty while neither admitting or denying they failed to supervise precious metals traders who allegedly schemed to manipulate the price of precious metals futures contracts and allegedly colluding to trigger customer stop-loss orders. The fraud allegedly ran from Feb. 2008 to at least Sept. 2014.

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Article: US fines Deutsche Bank, UBS and HSBC over market manipulation

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US fines Deutsche Bank, UBS and HSBC over market manipulation

Agence France-Presse, 30 January 2018

US authorities on Monday announced fines and charges against three major European banks and eight individuals accused of manipulating futures markets for precious metals.

Deutsche Bank, UBS and HSBC will together pay a total of $46.6 million to settle allegations that traders at the banks worked to manipulate futures markets in precious metals through a process known as “spoofing,” the Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.Seven former traders, including ex-UBS trader Andre Flotron, who was indicted last year, as well as a technology consultant, also face charges of “spoofing” — in which traders place and then abort trades to manipulate prices — on markets for various precious metals including gold and silver between early 2008 and about 2014. Continue reading “Article: US fines Deutsche Bank, UBS and HSBC over market manipulation”

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Article: Federal Charges Filed in Price ‘Spoofing’ Inquiry on Wall St.

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Federal Charges Filed in Price ‘Spoofing’ Inquiry on Wall St.

Emily Flitter

New York Times, 29 January 2018

Federal authorities have filed civil and criminal charges against a group of Wall Street banks and individuals that they say tried to manipulate markets in gold, silver and certain financial products, including by showing potential customers fake prices.

The actions, filed over the past several days, are part of a yearslong effort by financial regulators and the Department of Justice to stamp out behavior that gives the biggest banks an advantage over smaller market players.

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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”

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Article: US regulators to fine UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC for ‘spoofing’ and manipulation: Sources

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US regulators to fine UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC for ‘spoofing’ and manipulation: Sources

Ruben Sprich, 29 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 multiagency 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 $10 million, while the fine for HSBC will be slightly less than that, the people said, without providing exact figures. Continue reading “Article: US regulators to fine UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC for ‘spoofing’ and manipulation: Sources”

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Article: New York fines Credit Suisse $135 mn over forex manipulation

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New York fines Credit Suisse $135 mn over forex manipulation

Agence France-Presse, 14 November 2017

US regulators hit banking giant Credit Suisse with a $135 million fine to resolve allegations its traders manipulated foreign exchange prices, New York officials announced Monday.

The illicit activity began at least as far back as 2008 through as recently as 2015, and included profiting at clients’ expense and improperly sharing client information, the New York State Department of Financial Services said in a statement.The department’s superintendent Maria Vullo said certain bank executives “deliberately fostered a corrupt culture” which permitted repeated violations of the law and of client trust.The action against Credit Suisse is the latest in a series of agreements by major international banks to settle the investigations by US authorities into the alleged manipulation of the foreign exchange market. In late September, the British bank HSBC agreed to pay $175 million to avoid prosecution. Continue reading “Article: New York fines Credit Suisse $135 mn over forex manipulation”

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Article: UK banks ‘handled’ $740m in laundered Russian money

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UK banks ‘handled’ $740m in laundered Russian money

Arab News, 22 March 2017

LONDON: Several British banks allegedly processed nearly $740 million in a multi-billion dollar Russian money-laundering scam, The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.

According to documents obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, at least $20 billion was moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 in a vast criminal operation called “The Global Laundromat.” The scam involved over 500 people including oligarchs and Russian criminals with links to the government and the domestic intelligence agency, the FSB. Continue reading “Article: UK banks ‘handled’ $740m in laundered Russian money”

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Article: BlackRock, PIMCO said to plan new front in bank FX-rigging cases

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BlackRock, PIMCO said to plan new front in bank FX-rigging cases

Bloomberg, 05 March 2017

Some of the world’s biggest investors are working with a U.S. law firm to prepare a fresh wave of litigation against banks accused of rigging foreign-exchange markets.

BlackRock, Pacific Investment Management Co. and hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management are working with law firm Quinn Emanuel to recover losses they blame on the manipulation of currency benchmarks, according to two people familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified because nothing has been filed.

The target banks, including Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, J.P. Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and UBS Group, have been fined billions of dollars for conspiring to rig FX benchmarks. The firm, which will probably file lawsuits in London and New York, is trying to attract additional investors, the people said.

Quinn Emanuel’s clients will likely opt out of an existing New York class action over currency manipulation that won a total of about $2 billion in settlements from HSBC, Barclays, RBS, Goldman Sachs Group and others in 2015, according to people with knowledge of the firm’s strategy.

Opting out of the class action would allow large investors to seek higher settlements by pursuing a global strategy that includes the recovery of losses from London, where a significant portion of global trades are settled. The existing class action is limited to transactions that took place in New York.

The two law firms that are running the existing U.S. lawsuit, Hausfeld and Scott + Scott, won’t give up control of the case without a fight.

In an April 24 letter emailed to U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield, lawyers complained that “certain unnamed law firms were sending false and misleading communications to class members to persuade them to opt out of the settlements,” the judge said in a court order Thursday. She set a May 12 deadline for the two firms to make a formal request as to what she should do in response.

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Article: FBI arrests senior HSBC banker accused of rigging multibillion-dollar deal

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FBI arrests senior HSBC banker accused of rigging multibillion-dollar deal

Rupert Neate in New York and Jill Treanor in London, 20 July 2016

Mark Johnson and a colleague allegedly defrauded clients and ‘manipulated the foreign exchange market to benefit themselves and their bank’

A senior HSBC banker has been arrested by the FBI as he attempted to board a transatlantic flight and charged him with fraudulently rigging a multibillion-dollar currency exchange deal.

Mark Johnson, a British citizen and HSBC’s global head of foreign exchange trading, and a colleague are accused of “defrauding clients” and alleged to have “corruptly manipulated the foreign exchange market to benefit themselves and their bank”.

He was arrested on Tuesday night shortly before he was due to fly to London from New York’s JFK airport, and was due to be formally charged by a judge at Brooklyn federal court later on Wednesday. He was later released on bail.

A second Briton, Stuart Scott, who was HSBC’s European head of foreign exchange trading in London until December 2014, is accused of the same crimes. A warrant was issued for Scott’s arrest.

They are the first people to be charged in connection with the US government’s long-running investigation into bankers’ alleged rigging of the $5.3tn (£4tn) per day forex market.

“The defendants allegedly betrayed their client’s confidence, and corruptly manipulated the foreign exchange market to benefit themselves and their bank,” said the US assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell. “This case demonstrates the [US Department of Justice’s] criminal division’s commitment to hold corporate executives, including at the world’s largest and most sophisticated institutions, responsible for their crimes.”

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Article: The Deutsche Bank gold manipulation scandal

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The Deutsche Bank gold manipulation scandal

Leonard Melmano, 02 June 2016

Sophisticated British criminals exploited vulnerabilities in Australia’s search engine and cryptocurrency infrastructure to dupe small investors, lured by the promise of high-yield funds badged by some of the finance world’s most trusted brands.

The complex scheme involved stolen identities and fraudulent prospectuses that claimed to represent high-yield investment funds run by global managers Citibank, Nomura, and IFM Investors. It has ensnared millions from unsuspecting victims who sought better returns as interest rates collapsed during the COVID-19 crisis. Continue reading “Article: The Deutsche Bank gold manipulation scandal”

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Article: Barclays, RBS and others settle U$2bn currency-rigging lawsuits

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Barclays, RBS and others settle U$2bn currency-rigging lawsuits

Jonathan Jones, 14 August 2015

HSBC (LON:HSBA), Barclays (LON:BARC), Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) and two other banks settled on yet more payouts for currency-rigging.

The banks settled with US investors, agreeing to a payout which took the overall total paid to the investors to US$2bn (£1.28bn) from nine banks.

US heavyweight Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas also settled.

It’s another round of payouts after six banks, including Barclays and RBS were, in May, ordered to pay US$6bn (£3.84bn) by UK and US authorities.

At the time, Barclays was hit with the biggest bank fine in British history.

American investors claimed the banks joined together to manipulate the US$5.3trn a day foreign exchange market.

Legal firm Hausfeld, which represented the investors, said that the agreements were preliminary and subject to approval by US District Judge Lorna Schofield.

As yet, there has been no information on how the sum would be divided between the banks if passed.

“In addition to the billions of dollars in compensation, these settling banks have agreed to cooperate with investors in their continuing litigation” against other institutions, Hausfeld said.

The banks yet to settle are Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), Societe Generale, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, RBC Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

The US$2bn includes earlier settlements of US$800mln, with JPMorgan, Bank of America, UBS and Citigroup.

“While the recoveries here are tremendous, they are just the beginning,” said Hausfeld chairman Michael Hausfeld.

“Investors around the world should take note of the significant recoveries secured in the United States and recognize that these settlements cover a fraction of the world’s largest financial market,” he said.

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Article: RBS, Barclays, HSBC … it’s time to get out of coal!

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RBS, Barclays, HSBC … it’s time to get out of coal!

Greig Aitken BankTrack, 04 August 2015

In advance of the UN climate summit in Paris, campaign groups are urging the banking sector to take one concrete step towards combatting the climate crisis, and quit financing coal.

It is hard to think of a UK business sector in more dire need of an image boost than the banking sector. The UK’s three biggest banks – Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC – appear stuck on a never-ending, Escher-esque scandal treadmill of their own making.

Round and round they go, ripping off small businesses (RBS), enabling Latin American drug cartels to launder billions and orchestrating tax evasion in Switzerland (HSBC), and blatantly mis-selling payment protection insurance to vulnerable customers (Barclays).

This behaviour is of course accompanied by obscene bonuses that the same banks have still seen fit to churn out to staff as regularly as clockwork every year since the 2008 crash.

Reporting from outside RBS’s City of London headquarters in November last year as a further multi-bank scandal concerning illegal foreign exchange rate manipulation was breaking, the Economics Editor of Channel 4 News, Paul Mason, visibly fighting back the expletives, let rip on air:

“I’m just sick of it, after six years why do we have to keep coming to do it?”

He was referring to yet more time spent covering yet more market manipulation, with little in the way of effective sanctions being dished out to prevent it, Mason’s angst summed up the UK public’s views about the banks.

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Article: JP Morgan agrees to pay $100 million to settle a Currency Manipulation Lawsuit in New York

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JP Morgan agrees to pay $100 million to settle a Currency Manipulation Lawsuit in New York

Giambrone, 25 January 2015

Financial service giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. has reached a $100 million settlement to resolve a U.S. antitrust lawsuit that sought damages for the alleged rigging of foreign currency markets, in which investors accused 12 major banks of rigging prices in the $5 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market in the case of In re: Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-07789.

JP Morgan will pay about $100 million and settled the case after mediation with Kenneth Feinberg, an American attorney, specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, RBS and UBS also settled with regulators in November for an additional $3.3 billion. Continue reading “Article: JP Morgan agrees to pay $100 million to settle a Currency Manipulation Lawsuit in New York”

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