• 287 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 287 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 289 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 689 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 694 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 696 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 699 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 699 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 700 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 702 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 702 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 706 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 706 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 707 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 709 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 710 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 713 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 714 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 714 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 716 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Strong U.S. Dollar Weighs On Blue Chip Earnings

Strong U.S. Dollar Weighs On Blue Chip Earnings

Earnings season is well underway,…

The Problem With Modern Monetary Theory

The Problem With Modern Monetary Theory

Modern monetary theory has been…

Market Sentiment At Its Lowest In 10 Months

Market Sentiment At Its Lowest In 10 Months

Stocks sold off last week…

  1. Home
  2. Markets
  3. Other

Deutsche Bank Turns Over Proof of Metals Price Rigging

Some say there is honor among thieves. Perhaps, but apparently not among the banking class of criminals when they are under serious legal and regulatory pressure.

German behemoth Deutsche Bank agreed last spring to assist plaintiffs and regulators by ratting out their co-conspirator banks in a wide-ranging scheme to rig prices and cheat clients.

They cut a deal to avoid even larger monetary damages and criminal prosecution. Executives there agreed to pay nearly $100 million to settle their legal troubles and share information. In return the bank gets to deny wrongdoing and keep its license to trade in markets. The other alleged cheaters, including the Bank of Nova Scotia, UBS, Barclays, HSBC, Fortis, Standard Chartered, and Bank of America, may not get off as easy.

More details are now emerging as to exactly what kind of evidence Deutsche provided, and it is indeed damning. Plaintiffs in a class action suit looked it over and just filed an amended complaint with broader allegations of wrongdoing implicating more banks. The revised complaint describes what they found in the Deutsch materials this way:

Plaintiffs incorporate factual allegations based on the more than 350,000 pages of documents and 75 audio tapes that Deutsche Bank produced as part of the cooperation provisions of its Settlement Agreement with Plaintiffs (collectively, the "DB Cooperation Materials"). The DB Cooperation Materials provide direct, "smoking gun" evidence of a conspiracy among the Fixing Members and several other silver market makers, including at least UBS, Barclays, Standard Chartered, Fortis, and Merrill Lynch, to illegally manipulate the price of silver and silver financial instruments at artificial, anti-competitive levels through multiple means.

"Smoking gun" appears to be an apt description. Here is an example of a chat between a trader at Deutsche Bank and one at HSBC:

Deutsche Bank [Trader-Submitter A]: I got the fix in 3 minutes

HSBC [Trader A]: I'm bearish

Deutsche Bank [Trader-Submitter A]: Hahahaha

HSBC [Trader A]: Massively... Really wanna sell sil * * *

HSBC [Trader A]: Let's go and smash it together

That's clear evidence of illegal collusion to manipulate prices down. But will this hoard of evidence actually lead to anything meaningful in terms of cleaning up the marketplace? We know banks have been rigging all sorts of markets and sticking it to their own customers for a long, long time with little repercussion. Regulatory capture – the cozy relationship between Wall Street and the bureaucrats who often want nothing more than to land a high-paying job there – is a real problem.

The CFTC, which regulates futures markets, announced they were closing their investigation into silver manipulation in 2013. After spending more than 7,000 enforcement hours, officials there somehow managed to miss what appears to be institutionalized cheating over a period lasting years.

Bart Chilton, who spearheaded the CFTC investigation, left for greener pastures shortly after the investigation wrapped up. He got a much better paying gig at nation's largest law firm, advising companies on the topic of regulation. Many have all but given up on agencies like the CFTC when it comes to keeping banks honest.

There is, however, reason for investors to hope. This class action lawsuit is the biggest civil litigation pertaining to metals market rigging to ever get past first base. The judge will allow discovery to proceed, based in large part upon the evidence provided by Deutsche Bank. Attorneys will start deposing traders and bank officials and attempting to find out just how deep the corruption goes. And, because it is a civil matter, the case cannot be derailed by inept or compromised regulators.

Deutsche Bank agreed already to fork over nearly $100 million as part of the suit. Other class-action suits are already pending and it is safe to say more victims will look at that jackpot and jump into the game.

The new evidence might even be too compelling for regulators to keep looking the other way. It is at least possible investors will see actual criminal prosecutions and banks losing their privileges to trade in these markets.

Metals market rigging has moved out of the realm of theory and into the realm of fact. Perhaps, for the first time ever, investors in the sector have a real shot at more honest markets and price discovery. Wouldn't that be nice?

 

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment