FX.co ★ JPMorgan is accused of fraudulent manipulation

According to Reuters, the American investment banking giant JPMorgan has agreed to pay $ 15.7 million to settle a spoofing lawsuit. The settlement agreement, which was announced late on Wednesday, was the result of an extensive investigation by the US government into illegal trading in futures and precious metals markets, known as spoofing.

Spoofing is manipulation in the market, when a trader places one or more orders, but is not going to hold them. Therefore, it is possible to open an order in the futures or options market to move the price in a certain direction, but when it approaches execution, the order will be pulled. It then makes other market participants think that there is a great depth in a particular direction, which is not really there.

The investment bank entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay $ 920 million, including a criminal fine of $ 436 million, to settle the US government's investigation into the counterfeiting of Treasury securities and precious metals. The Bank also agreed to independently report future violations.

The US Department of Justice has used some sophisticated data analysis tools to be able to detect fraud that previously could not be detected. The court materials say that a fine of $ 15.7 million will allow recovering less than one-third of the alleged damage across the entire class. Lawyers plan to demand up to one-third of the settlement amount, or about $ 5.2 million, from traders to cover legal costs.