Foreign Collusion, Naked Shorting (Counterfeiting) & Money Laundering — All Illicit Wealth
New Mexico State Investment Council v Bank of America
Since 2005, the Wall Street banks that comprise the major dealers of credit default swaps (“CDS”) have been engaged in a conspiracy to manipulate the CDS “final auction price,” the benchmark price used to value all CDS contracts market-wide at settlement.
PDF (133 pages): New Mexico State Investment Council v Bank of America
Australia’s NAB faces money laundering probe
ishwarkimmins, 07 June 2021
The National Australia Bank is being investigated by national financial crime regulators for breaking money laundering laws as part of a broader crackdown on organized crime.
Australia’s third-largest market capitalization company said Monday that Australia has begun a formal investigation into its compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism laws. The casino groups Crown Resorts, Star Entertainment Group and Sky City Entertainment Group are also under investigation, he said. The investigation is part of an extensive campaign by authorities aimed at organized crime revenue, focusing on financial institutions, casinos and crypto exchanges. Continue reading “Article: Australia’s NAB faces money laundering probe”
BofA Hit Hardest as EU Fines Bond-Trading Trio $34 Million
Aoife White, 28 April 2021
Bank of America Corp. Credit Suisse Group AG and Credit Agricole SA were fined about 28.5 million euros ($34 million) by European Union regulators for colluding on trading of U.S. supra-sovereign, sovereign and agency bonds.
Bank of America got the largest individual penalty of 12.6 million euros, while Credit Suisse was fined 11.9 million euros and Credit Agricole was ordered to pay more than 3.9 million euros. Deutsche Bank AG participated in the cartel but dodged a potential penalty of about 21.5 million euros because it was the first to inform the EU about the illegal behavior. Continue reading “Article: BofA Hit Hardest as EU Fines Bond-Trading Trio $34 Million”
Ex-Trader Sues RBS For £1.1M In Unpaid Bonuses
Joanne Faulkner, 12 April 2021
A former Royal Bank of Scotland trader is suing the lender for more than £1.1 million ($1.5 million), claiming he is being denied promised bonuses after being unlawfully dismissed during a regulatory investigation into the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
Arif Hussein, former managing director of a trading division, argues in a High Court claim that has recently been made public that RBS has wrongfully classified his firing from the lender in 2014 as “for cause.” This came despite an employment tribunal determining he had been unlawfully dismissed a year later, the claim added. Continue reading “Article: Ex-Trader Sues RBS For £1.1M In Unpaid Bonuses”
Wall Street Giants Beat Treasury Auction Rigging MDL
Dean Seal, 30 March 2021
A New York federal judge ruled Wednesday that he has yet to see any direct evidence that Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse conspired to manipulate the $14 trillion market for securities issued by the U.S. Treasury Department.
U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe dismissed long-running multidistrict litigation accusing a group of banks that also included JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley of rigging auctions for Treasury Department bonds and other securities, on top of reducing competition in a secondary market for those securities. Continue reading “Article: Wall Street Giants Beat Treasury Auction Rigging MDL”
Citi Must Face Former Trader’s Malicious-Prosecution Lawsuit
Bob Van Voris, Jenny Surane and Michael Leonard, Bloomberg News, 12 March 2021
(Bloomberg) — One of three British traders acquitted of using an online chatroom to fix prices in the foreign exchange market can go forward with a lawsuit claiming that Citigroup Inc. “fabricated” a baseless case against him, a judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero on Thursday rejected the bank’s attempt to have the case dismissed. Former Citigroup trader Rohan Ramchandani sued in 2019 claiming damages of $112 million.
Read More: Citigroup Framed Me, Acquitted Forex Trader Claims in Suit
The ruling clears the way for Ramchandani, a former London-based trader, to move forward with the malicious-prosecution suit, which he brought in New York against a group of the bank’s affiliates after his acquittal.
“Mr. Ramchandani’s claims of malicious prosecution are without merit and we will contest them vigorously,” Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.
A Manhattan federal jury in October 2018 found Ramchandani and two other British traders working for other banks — a group dubbed “the Cartel” — not guilty of conspiring through online chatrooms to manipulate the $5.1-trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.
Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc pleaded guilty to currency manipulation in 2015 as part of a $5.8 billion settlement with the DOJ.
Citigroup Can’t Duck Trader’s Malicious Prosecution Claims
Hailey Konnath, 11 March 2021
Citigroup Inc. must face a $112 million malicious prosecution suit brought by a former London-based trader who’s been acquitted on foreign exchange-rigging charges, a New York federal court ruled Thursday, finding that the trader has adequately alleged the bank knowingly fed the Justice Department false information about him.
Rohan Ramchandani, the former head of Citigroup’s European forex spot-market trading desk, was among three traders acquitted by a Manhattan federal jury in 2018. Ramchandani has accused the bank of lying to the U.S. Department of Justice to save itself during an antitrust probe into allegations that traders from several major banks colluded to affect daily benchmark rates on the forex spot markets. Continue reading “Article: Citigroup Can’t Duck Trader’s Malicious Prosecution Claims”
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”
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”
Barclays, RBS and other banks face £1bn forex rigging lawsuit
Sean Farrell, 29 July 2019
Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and three other banks are being sued by investors for at least £1bn over rigging of the foreign exchange market in a test case for US-style class actions in the UK.
A US law firm that specialises in stock market litigation has filed the claim at the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The claim also targets US investment banks JP Morgan and Citigroup, and Switzerland’s UBS. The legal action follows the European commission’s decision in May to fine five banks more than €1bn (£910m) for colluding to reduce competition in markets for 11 currencies, including the US dollar, the euro and the pound.
Cartels of traders with names such as the “Three-Way Banana Split” operated on chatrooms to rig the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market. UBS, which informed the commission about the collusion, was not fined but Japan’s MUFG received a penalty. Continue reading “Article: Barclays, RBS and other banks face £1bn forex rigging lawsuit”
JPMorgan, UBS among five banks facing £1 billion FX-rigging suit
Bloomberg, 29 July 2019
London: JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS Group AG are among five banks being sued over allegations of foreign-exchange rigging in a class-action lawsuit seeking more than £1 billion ($1.2 billion, Dh4.4 billion).
Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc are also among the targets of the UK suit that will say pension funds, asset managers, hedge funds and corporations lost out because of market manipulation between 2007 and 2013 and should be compensated.
The lawsuit centres on collusion on foreign-exchange trading strategies, for which the European Commission fined Barclays, RBS, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc a total of €1.07 billion ($1.2 billion) in May. UBS escaped a fine because it was the first to tell regulators about the collusion. Continue reading “Article: JPMorgan, UBS among five banks facing £1 billion FX-rigging suit”
Swiss regulator to fine banks €80m over foreign exchange cartel
The Irish Times, 06 June 2019
Four British and US banks will be fined about 90 million Swiss francs (€80m) this week by Switzerland’s competition authority for colluding to rig foreign exchange markets, weeks after the European Union handed out €1 billion of penalties for similar misconduct.
Weko, as the Swiss regulator is known, found that traders at Barclays, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Royal Bank of Scotland worked together in a cartel-style arrangement to manipulate currency prices for their own gain, according to people briefed on the decision. Continue reading “Article: Swiss regulator to fine banks €80m over foreign exchange cartel”
Citi, JPMorgan, UBS face forex class action over ‘Mafia’ chat rooms
Peter Vercoe, 28 May 2019
Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and JPMorgan Chase are among five banks named in a class action lawsuit in Australia seeking damages for colluding on foreign-exchange trading strategies.
UBS Group and Barclays were also named in the suit lodged on Monday in the Federal Court by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers. The action says the banks colluded to rig foreign exchange rates, boosting profits at the expense of Australian businesses and investors, the law firm said in a statement. Continue reading “Article: Citi, JPMorgan, UBS face forex class action over ‘Mafia’ chat rooms”
Five Banks Face Lawsuit In Australia for FX Collusion
finews asia, 27 May 2019
UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland are among five banks named in a class action lawsuit in Australia relating to collusion on foreign-exchange strategies.
Australian law firm Maurice Blackburn on Monday filed a class-action lawsuit against the five international investment banks, accusing them of colluding to rig foreign exchange rates during 2008-2013 so they can profit. They are UBS, Barclays Bank, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and J.P. Morgan. Continue reading “Article: Five Banks Face Lawsuit In Australia for FX Collusion”
Citi, JPMorgan, UBS Face Forex Cartel Class Action in Australia
Peter Vercoe, 27 May 2019
Citigroup Inc., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are among five banks named in a class action lawsuit in Australia seeking damages for colluding on foreign-exchange trading strategies. UBS Group AG and Barclays Plc were also named in the suit lodged Monday in the Federal Court by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers. The action claims the banks colluded to rig foreign exchange rates boosting profits at the expense of Australian businesses and investors, the law firm said in a statement. Continue reading “Article: Citi, JPMorgan, UBS Face Forex Cartel Class Action in Australia”
THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?
