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US: Banca IMI to pay US$2.2M for bid-rigging

 |  May 12, 2019

Banca IMI Securities has pleaded guilty to an antitrust charge and was sentenced to a pay a criminal fine of more than US$2 million for its involvement in a conspiracy to rig bids for pre-release American Depository Receipts (ADRs), the US Justice Department (DOJ) said in a statement on Friday, May 10.

The DOJ announced that the New York-based broker-dealer, which is indirectly controlled by Banca IMI, admitted that it engaged in the conspiracy with other institutions and individuals between March 2012 and at least August 2014.

The broker pleaded guilty to conspiring to borrow pre-release ADRs from US depository banks at artificially suppressed rates, the statement said.

“On at least 30 occasions, Banca IMI reached an agreement with one or more co-conspirators as to the bids they would submit to US depository banks. On many occasions, the conspirators agreed that they all would submit the same bid,” the DOJ added.

Full Content: DOJ

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