Tag: London

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Article: Britain’s NatWest bank faces money laundering charges

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Britain’s NatWest bank faces money laundering charges

Tom Wilson, Iain Withers, 16 March 2021

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s financial regulator has started a criminal action against NatWest over allegations it failed to detect suspicious activity by a customer depositing nearly 400 million pounds ($553 million) over five years, mostly in cash.

The action is the first such case against a British bank under a 2007 money laundering law. If convicted, the bank faces a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it was bringing the proceedings after NatWest’s systems failed to adequately monitor and scrutinise activity over an account held by a British customer between November 2011 and October 2016.

Around 365 million pounds was paid into the unnamed customer’s accounts, of which around 264 million pounds was in cash, the watchdog alleged.

NatWest had previously disclosed in its 2020 annual report an FCA investigation in relation to “certain money services businesses and related parties”.

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Article: China tells UK to butt out of Hong Kong

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China tells UK to butt out of Hong Kong

Andrew Davis, 15 March 2021

China accused the UK of “groundless slanders” after the British government said Beijing’s crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong wasn’t in compliance with the treaty that paved the way for the city’s return to Chinese control.

“The UK has no sovereignty, jurisdiction or right of ‘supervision’ over Hong Kong after the handover, and it has no so-called ‘obligations’ to Hong Kong citizens,” China said in a statement posted Sunday (Monday AEDT) on the website of its London embassy. “No foreign country or organisation has the right to take the Joint Declaration as an excuse to interfere in Hong Kong affairs, which are China’s internal affairs.”

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Article: Watchdog bans City of London trader for ‘wash trading’

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Watchdog bans City of London trader for ‘wash trading’

Hannah Godfrey, 04 March 2021

The city watchdog has banned ex-City of London trader Adrian Geoffrey Horn after he engaged in ‘wash trading’, a form of market abuse.

Horn, who worked as a market making trader at Cheapside-based Stifel Nicolaus Europe, was fined £52,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and banned for carrying out any regulated work in the future. Continue reading “Article: Watchdog bans City of London trader for ‘wash trading’”

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Article: The LIBOR Scandal

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The LIBOR Scandal

Jason Fernando, 24 February 2021

What Is the LIBOR Scandal?
The LIBOR Scandal was a highly-publicized scheme in which bankers at several major financial institutions colluded with each other to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). The scandal sowed distrust in the financial industry and led to a wave of fines, lawsuits, and regulatory actions. Although the scandal came to light in 2012, there is evidence suggesting that the collusion in question had been ongoing since as early as 2003.

Many leading financial institutions were implicated in the scandal, including Deutsche Bank (DB), Barclays (BCS), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

As a result of the rate fixing scandal, questions around LIBOR’s validity as a credible benchmark rate have arisen and it is now being phased out. According to the Federal Reserve and regulators in the U.K., LIBOR will be phased out by June 30, 2023, and will be replaced by the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). As part of this phase-out, LIBOR one-week and two-month USD LIBOR rates will no longer be published after December 31, 2021. Continue reading “Article: The LIBOR Scandal”

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Article: Swiss central bank chief rejects ‘currency manipulator’ label from the U.S.

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Swiss central bank chief rejects ‘currency manipulator’ label from the U.S.

Elliot Smith, 17 December 2020

LONDON — Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan has rejected a U.S. decision to label Switzerland a “currency manipulator.”

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday added Switzerland to a list of nations it suspects of deliberately devaluing their currencies against the dollar.

Jordan told CNBC on Thursday that neither the SNB nor Switzerland itself has artificially manipulated the value of the Swiss franc.

“Our monetary policy is necessary, it is legitimate, and we have a very low inflation rate — it is even negative at this moment — so we have to fight this deflation, and the Swiss franc is very strong, so it appreciated in nominal terms over the last 12 years enormously, both vis-a-vis the euro and vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar,” he said. Continue reading “Article: Swiss central bank chief rejects ‘currency manipulator’ label from the U.S.”

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Article: The US clampdown on firms “spoofing” the markets

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The US clampdown on firms “spoofing” the markets

Simon Wilson, 24 October 2020

A few weeks ago the big US bank JPMorgan Chase admitted that its then-employees fraudulently rigged precious-metals and Treasury (US government bond) markets tens of thousands of times between 2008 and 2016. As part of its settlement with the US authorities, it agreed to pay a total of $920m in fines and restitution (including $172m in “disgorgement”, meaning paying back its ill-gotten gains). The bank admitted that traders based in New York, London and Singapore – working in the gold, silver and other precious metals futures markets, as well as the Treasury cash and futures markets – had engaged in the practice known as “spoofing” on thousands of occasions over the course of eight years.

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Article: JPMorgan Chase Fined US$920 Million For Market Manipulation

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JPMorgan Chase Fined US$920 Million For Market Manipulation

MSHERELYN GOH, 02 October 2020

Just like in an episode of Billions, only Bobby Axelrod would actually have to pay up, JPMorgan Chase has to fork out US$920 million to settle US civil and criminal charges over fake trades in precious metals and Treasury futures designed to manipulate the market,. The settlement comes as the largest bank in the US reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department to resolve criminal fraud charges over the long-running schemes.

In one of the schemes, JPMorgan traders in New York, London and Singapore between 2008 and 2016 commissioned tens of thousands of orders for gold, silver, platinum and palladium futures that were placed in order to be cancelled to deceive other market participants, wrote the Department of Justice (DOJ), one of three agencies involved in the case, in a press release. Continue reading “Article: JPMorgan Chase Fined US$920 Million For Market Manipulation”

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Article: JPMorgan allegedly helped Russian mafia launder funds – FinCEN leak

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JPMorgan allegedly helped Russian mafia launder funds – FinCEN leak

Stephen Rae, 20 September 2020

The FinCEN Files leak show JP Morgan in London was suspected of helping Russian mafia ‘capo di capi’ or boss of bosses to launder more than a $1BN.

Semion Mogilevich – who has appeared in the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list – has been accused of crimes including murder, drugs smuggling and gun running.

Given his background he should not have been allowed to use the financial system, but a SARs filed by JP Morgan in 2015 after the account was closed, reveals how the bank’s London office may have moved some of the cash.

The FinCen Files is a data dump leak of internal US Treasury Department documents which apparently show how major banks allowed criminal suspects to launder dirty money around the globe. Notably, the leak shows London is often the weak link in the financial system and how London is awash with Russian cash.

The leak of documents from the Treasury Department show how JP Morgan, provided banking services to a secretive offshore company called ABSI Enterprises between 2002 and 2013, even though the firm’s ownership was not clear from the bank’s records, the BBC reported.

Over one five-year period, JP Morgan sent and received wire transfers totalling $1.02bn, the broadcaster revealed.

The bank’s SAR noted ABSI’s parent company “might be associated with Semion Mogilevich – an individual who was on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted list”.

In a statement to the BBC, JP Morgan said: “We follow all laws and regulations in support of the government’s work to combat financial crimes. We devote thousands of people and hundreds of millions of dollars to this important work.”

The files were obtained by BuzzFeed News which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – image above from www.ICIJ.org – and 400 journalists around the world. The Panorama investigation programme led research for the BBC.

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Article: The Mysterious London Traders Accused of Manipulating Oil Markets — and the Anonymous Hedge Fund, Rare-Coin Expert, and Day Traders Who Are Fighting Back

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The Mysterious London Traders Accused of Manipulating Oil Markets — and the Anonymous Hedge Fund, Rare-Coin Expert, and Day Traders Who Are Fighting Back

Leah McGrath Goodman, 17 September 2020

Robert Mish is not an oil trader. He’s a numismatist — an expert in rare coins, precious metals, and currencies. Growing up in Brooklyn, he began by collecting stamps and playing cards at the age of four. From there, he moved on to coins and, eventually, valuable antiquities, heading out to California to start his own business in Menlo Park, Mish International Monetary. He traveled the world attending coin shows and became an authority on commodities such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, writing and contributing to a number of books.

This year, two months after his 73rd birthday, Mish found himself trading U.S. crude oil futures at perhaps their most inopportune moment: On April 20, the price of oil fell to zero — and kept falling. Mish, an expert in commodities, was holding ten oil contracts as the market went over the edge.

After 50 years of inspecting currencies and stores of value from the Americas to Europe to Asia, Mish can also claim another expertise: He is an expert in counterfeit detection. That day, as he watched his oil trades go south, he picked up the phone and called one of the best market-manipulation lawyers in the country.

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Article: UK watchdog plans to fine London trader for market manipulation

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UK watchdog plans to fine London trader for market manipulation

Reuters Staff, 16 September 2020

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Wednesday it would impose a 100,000-pound fine on a London trader for market abuse and prohibit him from performing any functions related to regulated activity.

Corrado Abbattista, partner and chief investment officer at Fenician Capital Management LLP, repeatedly placed “large misleading” orders for Contract for Differences (CFDs), referenced to equities, between Jan. 20 and May 15, 2017, which he did not intend to execute, the FCA said bit.ly/32yIuuk.

At the same time, he placed smaller orders that he did intend to execute on the opposite side of the order book to the misleading orders, the financial regulator added. Continue reading “Article: UK watchdog plans to fine London trader for market manipulation”

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Article: Burford abandons market manipulation claim

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Burford abandons market manipulation claim

Gazette reporter, 15 May 2020

Burford Capital has abandoned a legal bid to prove its share price was illegally manipulated after being denied access to market information.

The embattled litigation funder said it does not intend to appeal a High Court ruling refusing an application to compel the London Stock Exchange to release trading data.

Burford has made a concerted effort to pursue claims for market manipulation following an August 2019 short attack against its shares. The Guernsey-registered and New York-based business came under assault when a US shareholder activist, Muddy Waters, published an apparently damning analysis. Muddy Waters claimed Burford was ‘arguably insolvent’ and described its governance as ‘laughter-inducing’, allegations which were strenuously denied by Burford. Muddy Waters renewed its attack on Burford earlier this week, accusing it of over-stating profits. Continue reading “Article: Burford abandons market manipulation claim”

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Article: Burford Loses ‘Market Manipulation’ Claim Against London Stock Exchange

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Burford Loses ‘Market Manipulation’ Claim Against London Stock Exchange

Krishnan Nair, 15 May 2020

Burford Capital has failed in its claim against the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that it had been the victim of market manipulation, after its share price plummeted last year.

Last August, the litigation funder’s share price tumbled following what the firm referred to as a “short-selling attack” by U.S. research firm Muddy Waters. More than $1.2 billion was wiped off Burford’s value, with shares dropping as low as 64%.

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Article: Market manipulation persists in London’s financial district

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Market manipulation persists in London’s financial district

LLB EDITOR, 27 April 2020

A total of 822 reports of suspected market manipulation were made to the FCA last year (year end Dec 31 2019) by market participants, suggesting that the problem is far from being eradicated, says RPC, the City-headquartered law firm.

The number of reports of market manipulation saw a slight increase last year, rising from 812 in 2018.

Market manipulation is the attempt to artificially increase or decrease the price of an asset, index or its derivative in order to make a gain. Following the LIBOR scandal that broke in 2012, the laws relating to market manipulation were significantly tightened up. This included criminalising the attempted manipulation of benchmarks (Financial Services Act 2012). Continue reading “Article: Market manipulation persists in London’s financial district”

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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: London Court Hears £1B Forex-Rigging Case Against Five Banks

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London Court Hears £1B Forex-Rigging Case Against Five Banks

Aziz Abdel-Qader, 05 November 2019

The case accusing Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS of foreign exchange rigging is scheduled to be heard at London’s tribunal on Wednesday.

The five global banks are facing a £1 billion ($1.3 billion) class-action lawsuit that seeks to compensate pension funds, asset managers, hedge funds, and corporations that lost out because these banks participated in a market manipulation scheme between 2007 and 2013. However, the total value of potential fines will depend on the number of forex trades executed in London, and the proportional impact of rate-rigging on GBP trades. Continue reading “Article: London Court Hears £1B Forex-Rigging Case Against Five Banks”

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