匯豐頂級外匯交易員在美國被捕

Two top foreign exchange traders employed at HSBC have been charged with making $8m in profits and fees by “front running” a client’s $3.5bn foreign exchange trade, according to a US criminal complaint unsealed yesterday.

根據昨日啓封的一份美國刑事起訴書，匯豐(HSBC)兩名頂級外匯交易員被控在執行一名客戶的35億美元外匯交易前建“老鼠倉”(front running)，從中斬獲800萬美元的利潤和費用收入。

Mark Johnson, a UK citizen and global head of forex cash trading, was arrested on Tuesday evening at New York’s John F Kennedy airport, on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud.

匯豐的外匯現金交易全球主管、英國公民馬克•約翰遜(Mark Johnson)週二晚在美國紐約肯尼迪國際機場被捕，被指控犯有共謀和電訊欺詐。

A warrant was also issued for the arrest of Stuart Scott, a UK citizen who was head of forex cash trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa until he left HSBC in 2014.

有關部門還對英國公民斯圖爾特•斯科特(Stuart Scott)發出逮捕令。他在2014年離開匯豐之前擔任該行外匯現金交易的歐洲、中東和非洲主管。

The arrest could cause reputational damage to the global bank’s forex trading business and fuel more calls for HSBC to face full criminal charges. The US Department of Justice has already been criticised for failing to prosecute HSBC after it paid $2bn in 2012 over laundering billions of dollars for Mexican and Colombian drug gangs.

這起逮捕可能給這家全球銀行的外匯交易業務帶來聲譽損害，並且引發更多人呼籲讓匯豐面臨全面刑事指控。美國司法部(DoJ)已經因爲未能對匯豐提起公訴而受到批評，該行此前因幫助墨西哥和哥倫比亞販毒團伙洗錢數十億美元而在2012年認罰20億美元。

The bank is also under DoJ investigation over alleged rigging of the $5tn foreign exchange market.

該行還因爲涉嫌操縱規模達5萬億美元的外匯市場而受到美國司法部調查。

HSBC and a number of its largest competitors have already paid more than $10bn in civil penalties in connection with the global forex probe. But this case marks one of the first times that individual currency traders have been accused of cheating a specific client, an allegation that could further erode trust in the bank.

匯豐及其多家大型競爭對手已經爲全球外匯操縱調查支付了逾100億美元民事罰款。但這是剛開始有個體外匯交易員被控欺騙一家特定客戶，這一指控可能進一步侵蝕人們對匯豐的信任。

The DoJ alleges that the traders cheated an unnamed client by deliberately buying pounds ahead of the customer’s $3.5bn purchase of sterling and reselling it to the client at higher prices.

美國司法部稱，涉案交易員欺騙了一家客戶（未點明客戶名稱），他們蓄意搶在客戶買入價值35億美元的英鎊之前買入英鎊，然後將這些英鎊以較高價格轉售給這家客戶。

The client in question was Cairn Energy, a UK-listed oil and gas producer, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

據一名聽取了案情簡報的人士透露，此案中涉及的客戶是在英國上市的石油和天然氣生產商凱恩能源(Cairn Energy)。

In 2011, Cairn sold an ownership interest in an Indian subsidiary for $3.5bn and wanted to convert it into sterling to distribute it to shareholders. It hired HSBC and required the bank to sign a confidentiality agreement.

2011年，凱恩公司以35億美元價格出售其在一家印度子公司的所有者權益，並希望將售股所得轉換成英鎊後派發給股東。該公司聘請了匯豐，並要求該行簽署保密協議。

US authorities allege the traders used a technique known as “ramping” that caused the price of pounds to spike. That spike benefited the bank’s trading book at the expense of the client, which then paid a higher price for the sterling.

美國有關部門指控涉案交易員使用一種被稱爲“炒高價格”(ramping)的操作方法，引發英鎊匯率飆升。這一飆升以犧牲客戶的利益（因爲客戶以較高價格買入英鎊）爲代價，爲匯豐的交易賬戶帶來額外進賬。

The price spikes caught the attention of an adviser to Cairn, who challenged an unnamed supervisor about the movement. The unnamed supervisor, working with the bankers, then allegedly misled the client by blaming the price increase on a “Russian” bank in the market, US authorities said.

匯率飆升引起了凱恩公司一名顧問的注意，此人就匯率異常變動質問一位未點名的主管。據美國有關部門表示，與銀行家們合作的這位未點名的主管，據稱隨後誤導了客戶，將匯率飆升歸咎於市場上的一家“俄羅斯”銀行。

The DoJ alleges the traders made $3m in profits in their own trading book by front running the trades and HSBC received $5m in improper fees.

美國司法部指控涉案交易員通過建“老鼠倉”，在自己的交易賬目上斬獲300萬美元利潤，而匯豐獲得了500萬美元的不當費用收入。

HSBC fired Mr Scott as its head of European currency trading in December 2014, just weeks after the bank paid a $618m fine to US, UK and Swiss regulators for its involvement in the foreign exchange rate-rigging scandal.

匯豐在2014年12月解僱了身爲歐洲外匯交易主管的斯科特，而在那幾周前，該行因捲入匯率操縱醜聞，向美國、英國和瑞士監管機構認罰6.18億美元。