Money

Ex-JPMorgan trader found guilty in U.S. currency-rigging trial


Ex-JPMorgan trader found guilty in U.S. currency-rigging trial

By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former foreign exchange trader at JPMorgan Chase & Co (N:) was found guilty Wednesday of conspiring to rig trades for his own benefit.

Akshay Aiyer was convicted of one count of conspiracy by a jury in federal court in Manhattan, court records show. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 3.

“This conviction serves as a reminder of our commitment to hold individuals responsible for their involvement in complex financial schemes which violate the integrity of the global financial markets,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, of the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a statement.

A lawyer for Aiyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Aiyer, who lives in New York, was indicted in May 2018. Prosecutors said he conspired from at least October 2010 to July 2013 to eliminate competition by fixing prices of and rigging bids for Central and Eastern European, Middle Eastern and African currencies.

Aiyer was at least the sixth person charged in Manhattan federal court in connection with a wide-ranging U.S. probe into currency manipulation by major banks.

Barclays Plc (L:), BNP Paribas SA (PA:), Citigroup Inc (N:), JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (L:) and UBS Group AG (S:) have entered related guilty pleas, and been collectively fined more than $2.8 billion.

Prosecutors said Aiyer and his co-conspirators swapped trading positions, customer information and pricing of customer orders through chat rooms, phone calls and text messages, in an effort to coordinate their own trading and boost profit, the indictment said.

Those co-conspirators included former traders Jason Katz, who worked at Barclays and BNP Paribas, and Christopher Cummins, who worked at Citigroup. Both pleaded guilty in January 2017 to conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.





READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.