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”

Article: Former Glencore Oil Trader Charged With Manipulation of Fuel Prices

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Former Glencore Oil Trader Charged With Manipulation of Fuel Prices

Dave Michaels, 23 March 2021

WASHINGTON—A former oil trader at mining company Glencore PLC was charged with manipulating fuel oil prices, in a case that echoes claims investigated in Europe seven years ago.

The ex-trader, Emilio Heredia, was charged under a document that prosecutors typically use when a defendant is to plead guilty. He is to be arraigned Tuesday in San Francisco federal court on one count of conspiracy related to trading through a process managed by oil-price benchmark publisher S&P Global Platts. Mr. Heredia directed other traders to submit orders that would push up or down prices, to engineer a move that would improve the profitability of other transactions in physical fuel oil, according to the charging document filed in court last week. Continue reading “Article: Former Glencore Oil Trader Charged With Manipulation of Fuel Prices”

Article: GameStop Frenzy Prompts SEC to Weigh More Short Sale Transparency

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GameStop Frenzy Prompts SEC to Weigh More Short Sale Transparency

House lawmakers meeting Thursday plan to examine the GameStop trading and discuss the dearth of short-sale data

Dave Michaels and Dawn Lim, Wall Street Journal, 17 February 2021

The Securities and Exchange Commission was ordered 11 years ago to impose such rules but never did it. Now, dealing with the fallout from frenetic trading in GameStop Corp. shares, the agency under new leadership is considering using its authority to shine more light on the mechanics of the bearish trades.

Comment: Bearish trades my ass. Naked short selling is a Class A Felony. It is counterfeiting.  It is fraud, It is cheating widows and orphans and wiping out inventors and entrepreneurs, turning gold into lead for profit. It is also on occasion collusion with foreign governments (the UK more often than China) and thus treason, sabotaging the US economy the US now being in a state of war.

Article: Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Convicted of Wire Fraud in Market-Manipulation Case

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Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Convicted of Wire Fraud in Market-Manipulation Case

Dave Michaels, 25 September 2020

A jury on Friday convicted two former Deutsche Bank employees accused of manipulating precious-metals prices, boosting prosecutors’ efforts to punish traders for conduct that has cost banks millions of dollars in civil and criminal fines.

The verdict represents prosecutors’ second win in trials over conduct known as spoofing, a rapid-fire manipulation tactic that involves sophisticated detective work to expose. Continue reading “Article: Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Convicted of Wire Fraud in Market-Manipulation Case”

Article: Government Is Broadening Investigations of Spoofing-Like Practices

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Government Is Broadening Investigations of Spoofing-Like Practices

Dave Michaels, 17 March 2020

WASHINGTON—Authorities are investigating whether traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co. manipulated the market for Treasury securities and futures contracts, according to regulatory disclosures and people familiar with the matter.

The investigation shows that federal prosecutors and regulators continue to expand a campaign against an illicit practice known as spoofing, which has mainly focused on wily trading in derivatives. A move to scrutinize whether similar practices have affected the $17 trillion market for Treasury securities would open a new, and potentially more complicated, front in the war on spoofing.

The bank disclosed in a Feb. 25 regulatory filing that it is dealing with “related requests concerning similar trading-practices issues in markets for other financial instruments, such as U.S. Treasurys.” According to people familiar with the matter, the investigation also is probing the bank’s trading in futures. It couldn’t be learned which time period authorities are focusing their investigation on.

The Justice Department’s Fraud Section and regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are involved, the people said. A spokeswoman for JPMorgan declined to comment. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

Regulators and other authorities cracked down on spoofing after Congress specifically outlawed the feinting strategy in 2010. Citigroup Inc. paid $25 million in 2017 to settle regulatory claims that five traders spoofed Treasury futures. The same year, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. paid $600,000 to resolve CFTC claims over similar misconduct.

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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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THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?