A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois recently found two former precious metals traders at JPMorgan Chase & Co., guilty of fraud, attempted price manipulation, and spoofing via a precious metals futures contracts scheme that occurred over an eight-year period and encompassed “thousands of unlawful trading sequences,” authorities say. The two, now-convicted, ex-traders… Read More >>
Spoofing is Fraud & Erodes Investor Trust: Q&A
(FTF News reached out to Travis Schwab, CEO of Eventus, based in Austin, Texas, to check in with him about regulatory actions to stop false trade orders that spur sharp market price reactions before they disappear — otherwise known as “spoof orders.” Regulators have hit JPMorgan with a recent record $920 million fine and authorities have convicted… Read More >>
Spoofing Cases Yield a Record Fine & Convictions
False trade orders that spur sharp market price reactions before they disappear — otherwise known as “spoof orders” — have the full attention of authorities as evidenced by a recent record fine against JPMorgan, and the conviction of two former traders at Deutsche Bank. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay nearly one billion… Read More >>
Scotiabank Fined $127M for Price Fixing & Spoofing
The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) is settling major criminal and civil charges that it engaged in price-fixing and spoofing efforts via precious metals futures contracts. The Toronto-based bank has signed separate agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), with the combined fines totaling approximately $127.5 million. The… Read More >>
Merrill Lynch Commodities Penalized $36.5M for Spoofing
The CFTC reports that it has settled charges against Merrill Lynch Commodities, Inc. (MLCI), a provisionally registered swap dealer that is part of the Bank of America Corp. (BAC), for “spoofing, manipulation, and attempted manipulation over a six-year period with respect to certain precious metals futures contracts.” The settlement will cost MLCI an estimated $25… Read More >>
CFTC Bans Trader for Spoofing Futures Contracts
Krishna Mohan, a former “quant,” or quantitative analyst, at a so-far unidentified “proprietary trading firm,” has admitted in court to “thousands of acts of spoofing (bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution) in a variety of futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of… Read More >>
CFTC Alleges Mizuho Trader Tested Strategies via Spoofing
Tokyo-based Mizuho Bank, Ltd. has settled with the CFTC over allegations that it was involved in “multiple acts of spoofing in a variety of futures contracts” as a means of testing market reactions to certain types of orders. The charges are about instruments based upon U.S. Treasury notes and Eurodollars and transacted via the Chicago… Read More >>
CFTC Settles Spoofing Charges Against Japan’s Largest Bank
The CFTC has settled its charges against the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU) with a relatively small $600,000 penalty. Those charges accused the bank of “engaging in multiple acts of spoofing in a variety of futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, including futures contracts based on United… Read More >>
Has Your Firm Been ‘Spoofed?’
(Editor’s Note: Digital Age market manipulation via practices known as “spoofing” and “layering” are hitting home for many firms and regulators are beginning to take notice. For instance, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and major exchange companies recently alleged that the broker-dealer, Lek Securities, and its CEO facilitated acts of layering, spoofing and cross-product… Read More >>
CFTC Fines, Bans Two Citi Traders for Spoofing
The CFTC has issued two separate but related orders settling charges against Stephen Gola and Jonathan Brims for spoofing — generally defined as “bidding or offering with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution” — in U.S. Treasury futures markets while trading for Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (CGMI). The actions against the… Read More >>
