In a press release dated April 21st 2015 the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced:
The unsealing of a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC (Sarao Futures) and Navinder Singh Sarao (Sarao) (collectively, Defendants). The CFTC Complaint charges the Defendants with unlawfully manipulating, attempting to manipulate, and spoofing — all with regard to the E-mini S&P 500 near month futures contract (E-mini S&P). The Complaint had been filed under seal on April 17, 2015 and kept sealed until today’s arrest of Sarao by British authorities acting at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). After the arrest, the DOJ unsealed its own criminal Complaint charging Sarao with substantively the same misconduct.
It seems that the CFTC has a less than secure grasp of UK corporate law, since over on this side of the pond companies are either "Limited" or "Public Limited" but not both. A quick search of Companies House reveals that the former applies in this case, and that Nav Sarao Futures Limited is in fact registered as limited company number 05497320. The CFTC announcement goes on to say that:
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In a press release this morning the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that it has:
Today issued an Order against ICAP Europe Limited (ICAP), an interdealer broker, bringing and settling charges of manipulation, attempted manipulation, false reporting, and aiding and abetting derivatives traders’ manipulation and attempted manipulation, relating to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) for Yen. LIBOR is a critical benchmark interest rate used throughout the world as the basis for trillions of dollars of transactions. ICAP is a subsidiary of U.K.-based ICAP plc.
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Somewhat unusually for the Trading Gurus, here we reproduce in full today's statement by CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton, without further comment:
On September 30th, at the stroke of midnight, our country will face a government shutdown unless a continuing resolution to fund it is adopted. That would be grave news for consumers.
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It's all go today. I've only just finished blogging about connecting a new trading platform to one of my own brokers, and now I find said broker is in the news for a very different reason. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have just issued a press release announcing that they have:
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According to the Financial Services Authority website they have:
Today fined Barclays Bank Plc (Barclays) £59.5 million for misconduct relating to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR). This is the largest fine ever imposed by the FSA.
Not only that, but also according to a United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission press release (and using that ever more familar form of words that implies nobody is actually responsible) they have:
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Fresh from prosecuting and fining a range of foreign exchange brokers the CFTC have now started to fry some bigger fish. Referring to a by now familiar misuse of supposedly segregated funds, and using a by now familiar form of words, they just announced that they have:
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We've previously discussed a variety of academic and political views on the costs and/or benefits of high frequency trading here on the Trading Gurus blog. If that type of thing is of interest to you as well then you might want to wander over to The Economist, where a "virtual debate" is currently taking place on the topic of "This house believes that high-frequency trading contributes to the overall quality of markets".
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We reported at the beginning of November on the abrupt downfall of Jon Corzine. If you recall Mr. Corzine is an ex "Democratic" governor and senator, and now ex CEO of MF Global Inc. as well as an ex CEO of Goldman Sachs. He has just presided over the seventh largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, one of the regulators supposedly keeping an eye on dodgy dealings on Wall Street on behalf of U.S. taxpayers, has released a long statement about the affair. Amongst other things CFTC Commisioner Scott D. O’Malia has this to say:
More on The CFTC Finally Realize That MF Global "Has Shaken Public Confidence"!
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The global financial crisis took yet another turn for the worse on Monday. According to Yahoo! Finance:
MF Global's meltdown in less than a week made it the biggest U.S. casualty of Europe's debt crisis, and the seventh-largest bankruptcy by assets in U.S. history.
The chief executive of MF Global Holdings Ltd. is Jon Corzine. According to The Economist recently, Mr. Corzine is:
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At last we know the answer to the questions posed by FXCM themselves back in August following settlement of charges brought by the NFA, when they revealed that:
FXCM has set aside a $16 million reserve for the…. anticipated CFTC settlement.
Yet again the CFTC have simultaneously:
More on FXCM Settles CFTC Charges For More Than $14.2 Million
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