"I F..k The Markets Around A Lot" - Merrill Gold Trader's Chat Exposes "How Easy It Is" To Manipulate Metals Markets
Posted by freedomforall 3 years, 5 months ago to Business
Excerpt:
"“They did it over and over and over again. They took pride in their skill to manipulate prices. They took pride in ripping off other traders. They bragged about it.”
That is how Scott Armstrong, a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s fraud division, described two former traders at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit charged with manipulating precious-metals markets with fraudulent trades.
According to the government, the pair used spoofing orders in gold and silver markets for several years, mostly in 2010 and 2011.
As Bloomberg's Bre Bradham reports, chat logs introduced as evidence against Edward Bases and John Pacilio showed the two traders bragging about how easy it is to manipulate prices.
"...that does show u how easy it is to manipulate it sometimes," Bases wrote minutes after one such manipulation.
“I f..k the mkt around a lot,” Bases said in another message.
John Scheerer, a senior director, testified Tuesday that orders on CME exchanges must be “real, genuine, not fake,” and ready to be executed.
“Globex is not a game,” Scheerer said.
“This is real money.”
The defense angle was interesting - if not entirely fallacious - that "spoofing" was legal before Dodd-Frank. Sorry, no!"
"“They did it over and over and over again. They took pride in their skill to manipulate prices. They took pride in ripping off other traders. They bragged about it.”
That is how Scott Armstrong, a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s fraud division, described two former traders at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit charged with manipulating precious-metals markets with fraudulent trades.
According to the government, the pair used spoofing orders in gold and silver markets for several years, mostly in 2010 and 2011.
As Bloomberg's Bre Bradham reports, chat logs introduced as evidence against Edward Bases and John Pacilio showed the two traders bragging about how easy it is to manipulate prices.
"...that does show u how easy it is to manipulate it sometimes," Bases wrote minutes after one such manipulation.
“I f..k the mkt around a lot,” Bases said in another message.
John Scheerer, a senior director, testified Tuesday that orders on CME exchanges must be “real, genuine, not fake,” and ready to be executed.
“Globex is not a game,” Scheerer said.
“This is real money.”
The defense angle was interesting - if not entirely fallacious - that "spoofing" was legal before Dodd-Frank. Sorry, no!"
all is just a game to them, used to steal from us