Japan – Page 2 – Financial Treason & Crime

DUNCAN RILEY, 25 March 2021

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Japanese telecommunications company and investment giant SoftBank Group Corp. for alleged market manipulation.

Founded in 1981, SoftBank holds a significant share — 21.2% as of 2020 of Japan’s mobile phone subscription market — but is best known in the W est for its prolific investment portfolio. The list of companies SoftBank has invested in is too long to list but notable names include Uber Technologies Inc., Didi Chuxing Co. Ltd., Grab Holdings Inc., Nvidia Corp., TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. and DoorDash Inc.

Along with operating the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund, Softbank has a particular interest in ride-hailing companies. Except for Lyft Inc., SoftBank owns significant minority stakes in just about every other company in the market. When Grab purchased Uber’s Southeast Asian arm in 2018, it was a deal between two SoftBank-funded companies. Continue reading “Article: SEC is investigating Japanese investment giant SoftBank for market manipulation”

03/12/202103/20/2021

Article: Trader Arrested as WallStreetBets Phenomenon Finds Echo in Japan

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Trader Arrested as WallStreetBets Phenomenon Finds Echo in Japan

Gearoid Reidy and Shoko Oda, 12 March 2021

(Bloomberg) — A retail investor buys shares in a small company, touts his position on social media and inspires a horde of followers to do the same. The stock price goes to the moon — before crashing back to earth.

It’s an all-too-familiar tale to anyone watching the market in 2021, but this wasn’t GameStop Corp. It wasn’t even in America. And it happened in 2018.

It was in the Japanese city of Osaka, where a day trader who goes by the nickname Tonpin was betting on a tiny maker of precision dies and molds called Nichidai Corp. and broadcasting the fact on Twitter, where he has more than 55,000 followers. The stock surged more than sixfold in the first three months of 2018 before losing most of the gains.

The person behind the nickname was Toru Yamada, a former money manager, and he and another man have just been arrested for market manipulation, according to Japanese media reports. He wasn’t arrested for talking the stock up on Twitter, but on suspicion of trying to keep the share price down — albeit so it would have margin-trading restrictions removed which, when it happened, caused the shares to soar to new highs.

The incident shows how regulators sift through unusual trading patterns and come to conclusions often years later. It may pique the interest of protagonists and observers of the recent meme stock rally in the U.S., such as users of the Reddit forum WallStreetBets.

Yamada has yet to be charged, and it’s not clear whether he will be. And while nobody is suggesting that U.S. traders employed similar tactics to those he’s alleged to have used, the case illustrates the risks that can be associated with becoming a high-profile investor on social media. While you’re in the public spotlight, you may also be in the regulators’ crosshairs.

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03/10/202103/22/2021

Article: Japan Day Trader Arrested on Market Manipulation Charges: Report

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Japan Day Trader Arrested on Market Manipulation Charges: Report

Gearoid Reidy and Shoko Oda, 10 March 2021

Toru Yamada, a Japanese retail investor who was among the most vocal trading voices on the country’s social media, was arrested in Osaka on charges of market manipulation, according to local media reports.

Yamada, better known by his Twitter account name @Tonpin1234, was arrested on Monday local time by the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office along with another man, Hironobu Utsunomiya, for allegedly breaching the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

The charges related to trades involving Jasdaq-listed company Nichidai Corp. in 2018, the report said. The two placed a large number of sell orders below the market price just before the close, seeking to artificially stabilize Nichidai’s share price with the intention of preventing it from being subject to restrictions on new margin trades, according to the reports. Shares in Nichidai had surged since the start of that year, rising more than threefold by the time of Yamada’s last filing on March 26.

On Twitter, where he was a regular presence until last June, Yamada frequently tweeted about his favored stocks, and his bets were often followed by smaller retail investors. A combative presence on social media, Yamada frequently argued with other users who accused him of manipulation.

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12/16/202003/24/2021

Article: U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators

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U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators

Reuters Staff, 16 December 2020

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury labeled Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators on Wednesday and added three new names to a watch list of countries it suspects of taking measures to devalue their currencies against the dollar.

In what may be one of the final broadsides to international trading partners delivered by the departing administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Treasury said that through June 2020 both Switzerland and Vietnam had intervened in currency markets to prevent effective balance of payments adjustments.

Furthermore, in its semi-annual currency manipulation report, the Treasury said Vietnam had acted to gain “unfair competitive advantage in international trade as well.” Continue reading “Article: U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators”

01/15/202003/20/2021

Article: Swiss franc climbs after US adds it to ‘manipulation’ watchlist

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Swiss franc climbs after US adds it to ‘manipulation’ watchlist

Sam Jones in Zurich and Eva Szalay in London , 15 January 2020

The Swiss franc nudged up to a near three-year high against the euro on Tuesday as markets anticipated the move would limit the Swiss National Bank’s appetite for aggressive action to try to hold down its currency in future.

“The report is a warning shot to the SNB,” said George Saravelos, global co-head of currency research at Deutsche Bank, adding that the franc is likely to push higher from here. It now trades around CHF1.08 against the euro.

The US called on Bern on Monday to “more forcefully support domestic economic activity” by spending money and reducing the country’s already low tax burden, in what was an unusual swipe at a sovereign nation’s financial affairs. “Despite borrowing costs for the Swiss government being among the lowest in the world, fiscal policy remains underutilised, even within the constraints of Switzerland’s existing fiscal rules,” the US Treasury said in its assessment.

The SNB said on Tuesday that its interventions were transparent, and “motivated purely by monetary policy . . . aimed at addressing the negative consequence for inflation and the economy through a highly valued franc.”

“They are not aimed at giving Switzerland advantages by undervaluing the Swiss franc,” it added.

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06/19/201903/20/2021

Article: Draghi brushes off Trump accusation of currency manipulation

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Draghi brushes off Trump accusation of currency manipulation

EURACTIV, 19 June 2019

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said Tuesday (18 June) that the institution “doesn’t target the exchange rate”, shrugging off an allegation of currency manipulation from US President Donald Trump.

“We have our remit. We have our mandate. Our mandate is price stability” or inflation just below two percent, Draghi told a central banking conference in Sintra, Portugal.

“We are ready to use all the instruments that are necessary to fulfil this mandate, and we don’t target the exchange rate,” he added.

Draghi’s statement that weak economic growth and sluggish inflation could prompt the ECB to slash further rates already at historic lows had earlier sparked Trump’s ire.

“Mario Draghi just announced more stimulus could come, which immediately dropped the Euro against the Dollar, making it unfairly easier for them to compete against the USA,” Trump said on Twitter.

“They have been getting away with this for years, along with China and others,” he added.
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02/12/201405/12/2021

Article: Inside the New Currency Hedged ETFs from iShares

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Inside the New Currency Hedged ETFs from iShares

Eric Dutram, 12 February 2014

As the taper begins to ravage international markets, investors in the ETF world are starting to see the impact of currencies on foreign holdings. Many currencies are slumping against the U.S. dollar, and this is really having a huge negative impact on stock prices when investors adjust returns back to American currency.

Thanks to this currency slide and the possibility of a strong dollar, investors are starting to embrace currency-hedged ETFs in droves. Several have proven their worth over the past few months and they have really begun to build up assets as a result, leading other ETF issuers to consider jumping in on the market as well (see all the Top Ranked ETFs here).

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