The UK Financial Conduct Authority has published a Decision has banned three former Mizuho International Plc employees for market manipulation.
Diego Urra, Jorge Lopez Gonzalez and Poojan Sheth were prohibited from any regulated activities by the financial markets regulator.
Additionally, the UK watchdog slapped a of £395,000 fine on Urra, and a £100,000 monetary penalty each on Gonzalez and Sheth.
The FCA published a statement on Wednesday accusing the bond traders of placed large misleading orders for BTP Futures that they did not plan to execute. These actions gave false and misleading signals and a false or misleading impression about the supply or demand of BTP Futures. These events took place between 1 June 2016 and 29 July 2016.
According to the official announcement, Urra, Gonzalez and Sheth placed small orders which they did planned to execute on the opposite side of the order book around the same time.
The FCA stated:
The FCA considers that the individuals repeated this pattern of deliberate and intentional market manipulation on a number of occasions and were dishonest.
In the FCA’s view, the fines and the bans that it has decided to impose reflect the serious nature of the breaches set out in the Decision Notices and should act as a deterrent to other market participants.
FCA’s announcement further detailed that the former Mizuho traders have decided to pursue their case before the Upper Tribunal to decide whether the uphold FCA’s decision, change the size of the penalty or withdraw it altogether.
Last week the regulator warned CFD brokers against problematic tactics and bad practices in a letter sent the CEOs of retail brokers with UK license. The financial markets watchdog reminded them that CFDs are a high-risk product that can lead to substantial customer losses.
