US: FX ‘Cartel’ traders to face rigging charges

Prosecutors are poised to charge the currency traders at the heart of one of the biggest US market-rigging investigations, according to people familiar with the matter.

The imminent criminal charges are against members of ‘The Cartel’ chat group, the people said. These traders used instant messages to coordinate the rigging of foreign-exchange benchmarks by sharing confidential customer information, prosecutors have said in antitrust cases that led to guilty pleas by five banks in 2015.

The senior dealers who participated in The Cartel were Richard Usher, formerly of JPMorgan Chase, Rohan Ramchandani, formerly of Citigroup and Chris Ashton, formerly global head of spot trading at Barclays. Another member, Matt Gardiner, formerly of UBS Group AG, has been helping prosecutors build cases against the traders, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg News.

Lawyers for Ashton, Gardiner and Ramchandani declined to comment. Usher’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment.

The men are located outside of the US, meaning they would have to be extradited, a process that can take months, if not years. They are probably going to fight back against the charges, one of the people said.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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