Thanks to a dangerous combination of willful ignorance and sheer incompetence, regulators are (and will continue to be) years behind when it comes to cracking down on an HFT industry that has corrupted the “market” beyond all recognition and we all know that when it comes to things like leveraging a systemically important financial institution 40-1 or colluding to rig the world’s benchmark rates on which trillions in debt is based, no one ever goes to jail. And of course no central planners in Japan or the US will ever be brought up on charges of running the largest ponzi schemes the world has ever seen.
Having said all of that — and as the CFTC proved with flash crashing “mastermind” Navinder Sarao — every so often individuals have to take one for the global ponzi perpetuating white collar crime team just to prove the authorities are not entirely asleep at the wheel and today’s example is apparently a 57-year old former currency trader from London who, according to police, was running a £30 million ponzi scheme. Here’s more via CityWire [4]:
The City of London Police has arrested a currency trader who was linked in a global Ponzi scheme worth in excess of £30 million.
A 59 year old was arrested in East Yorkshire by detectives on suspicion of fraud by false representation and money laundering.
The investment scheme attracted 375 complaints across the world from investors. One consortium of investors put £4 million into the scheme.
The investigation into the fraud began in December 2014. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau linked 70 Action Fraud reports with a value of £10 million. This prompted an investigation by Humberside Police.
And from Bloomberg:
City of London Police arrests currency trader as part of ongoing investigation into a suspected Ponzi fraud worth ‘tens of millions of pounds.’
We’re anxious to discover which, if any, systemtically important financial institutions were complicit (either knowingly or by turning a blind eye) in facilitating this "global" fraud.
