Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC, and NatWest were fined 344 million euros (US$390 million) for foreign exchange market rigging. UBS avoided a 94 million euro (US$107 million) fine by alerting the European Commission to this particular cartel, which was set up in 2013 via a chatroom known as “Sterling Lads”. In May 2019, the EU sanctioned some of the same banks over similar fraud in a settlement featuring chatrooms called “Three-Way Banana Split”, “Only Marge,” “Essex Express,” and “Semi Grumpy Old Men”. Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Mitsubishi Group, and Natwest were fined a total of 1.07 billion euros (US$1.25 billion) by the EU antitrust authorities for manipulating the foreign exchange market via two cartels, between 2007 to 2013 for one group and between 2009 to 2012 for the other.
Bank traders exchanged sensitive information and trading plans and sometimes coordinated strategies through online chatrooms. Clearly, this is a RICO matter.
In the past eight years, Humongous Bank & Broker has been fined more than US$11 billion in total by US and European regulators since allegations surfaced that dealers in cartels were rigging G10 currencies, the world’s largest financial market.
Dozens of traders have been suspended or fired, but none were charged and successfully prosecuted with a felony. Until felony charges under the RICO Act are made in HB&B frauds at the most senior levels at Humongous Bank & Broker, financial regulators should be given zero respect.
The sad fact is that these banks, and the Bullion Banks that are also illegally trading money in the form of Precious Metals futures, can be fined another $11 billion or $111 billion or $1.1 trillion for their frauds. Without prison sentences, it matters not because these fines are not paid by HB&B. Their shareholders and customers pay. And, the independent trader continues to pay with humongous, ongoing losses.
Even though almost all securities and commodities are priced in G10 currencies, these regulators do not even have authority over the futures markets that HB&B control and manipulates with felony crimes that occur daily.
Does anybody really still have faith in the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) when we know that global capital markets are flat-out rigged?
This article carried by the Wall St Journal this week ought to infuriate every independent investor.
To summarize:
Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC, and NatWest were fined 344 million euros (US$390 million) for foreign exchange market rigging. UBS avoided a 94 million euro (US$107 million) fine by alerting the European Commission to this particular cartel, which was set up in 2013 via a chatroom known as “Sterling Lads”. In May 2019, the EU sanctioned some of the same banks over similar fraud in a settlement featuring chatrooms called “Three-Way Banana Split”, “Only Marge,” “Essex Express,” and “Semi Grumpy Old Men”. Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Mitsubishi Group, and Natwest were fined a total of 1.07 billion euros (US$1.25 billion) by the EU antitrust authorities for manipulating the foreign exchange market via two cartels, between 2007 to 2013 for one group and between 2009 to 2012 for the other.
Bank traders exchanged sensitive information and trading plans and sometimes coordinated strategies through online chatrooms. Clearly, this is a RICO matter.
In the past eight years, Humongous Bank & Broker has been fined more than US$11 billion in total by US and European regulators since allegations surfaced that dealers in cartels were rigging G10 currencies, the world’s largest financial market.
Dozens of traders have been suspended or fired, but none were charged and successfully prosecuted with a felony. Until felony charges under the RICO Act are made in HB&B frauds at the most senior levels at Humongous Bank & Broker, financial regulators should be given zero respect.
The sad fact is that these banks, and the Bullion Banks that are also illegally trading money in the form of Precious Metals futures, can be fined another $11 billion or $111 billion or $1.1 trillion for their frauds. Without prison sentences, it matters not because these fines are not paid by HB&B. Their shareholders and customers pay. And, the independent trader continues to pay with humongous, ongoing losses.
Even though almost all securities and commodities are priced in G10 currencies, these regulators do not even have authority over the futures markets that HB&B control and manipulates with felony crimes that occur daily.
Does anybody really still have faith in the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) when we know that global capital markets are flat-out rigged?