United States to Fine UBS for Spoofing

Reuters reported yesterday HSBC, UBS and Deutsche Bank, as well as former traders at the banks and individuals at other firms, were charged following a large-scale multi-agency probe including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission into "spoofing" in metals and equities futures.

"The defendants in these cases engaged in sophisticated schemes or trading practices aimed at defrauding individuals and entities trading on United States futures exchanges, " said John Cronan, the acting head of the department's criminal division, referring to the eight individuals, Reuters reported. The two Fairfield County residents, Edward Bases of New Canaan and John Pacilio of Fairfield, were identified as precious metals traders at unnamed global financial institutions and were charged with spoofing phantom orders in the commodities market in order to profit on what other traders assumed were legitimate orders.

The department stressed that all defendants were "presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law".

"Conduct like this poses significant risk of eroding confidence in U.S. markets and creates an uneven playing field for legitimate traders and investors", John Cronan, the acting head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said in a statement.

Spoofing involves placing bids to buy or offers to sell futures contracts with the intent to cancel them before execution.

The CFTC said Deutsche Bank had agreed to pay $30m to civil charges in the case, covering a period from 2008 to 2014.

The Justice Department's John Cronan said such manipulation erodes confidence in USA markets and "creates an uneven playing field" for legitimate traders and investors. It will pay $15m. Deutsche Bank will pay $30 million and UBS $15 million of that total in a wide-reaching investigation that also names six individuals.

A UBS spokesman noted that the bank "cooperated fully in the investigation, and has long since remediated the conduct", while a spokesperson for Deutsche Bank said the bank provided "substantial and proactive cooperation with the government's investigation and has enhanced controls and surveillance to help ensure that the underlying conduct does not occur in the future".

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