47 Currency Traders Are Indicted on Fraud Charges (updated info) | NYT

[Ediacara]

47 Currency Traders Are Indicted on Fraud Charges
By KENNETH N. GILPIN

Published: November 19, 2003


orty-seven currency traders were indicted today on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and securities fraud for what prosecutors said were wide-ranging crimes involving nearly every level of foreign-exchange trading.

The charges, which involve employees at low-level boiler-room operations with fancy-sounding names and at some of the world's largest financial institutions, capped an 18-month investigation conducted by undercover agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that was code-named "Operation Wooden Nickel."

"There is a staggering array of criminal conduct," said James B. Comey, the United States attorney for the southern district of New York. "Today's charges rum the gamut of fraud. With more than 1,000 victims, from small investors to large banks, the losses are in the millions."

More at the New York Times

[aquart]

1. IOW, nothing was too big or too small to steal.

And the real questions are: Tens of millions or hundreds of millions? And will we ever get a dime of it back?

We'll never know, because they are going to plead guilty rather than face a jury of their victims.

[mobuto]

2. This is a joke.

the fact is, Forex markets are totally unregulated, and they allow for the transfer of billions (Hundreds of billions? Nobody knows for sure how much.) of dollars a year. The sums involved are simply unbelievable, very few people understand the complex workings of the markets, and very often (as was seen in the Allfirst/AIB scandal) involve undertrained low-level people. The potential for abuse or fraud on a massive scale is just tremendous.

[leesa]

3. The Bush Crime Family just getting rid of a little competition

[Laughing Mirror]

4. not as important as Michael Jackson's penis perhaps, but

but those "wide-ranging crimes" the New York Times tempts us with in the lead, but fails to go into, include, according to the headline deck in today's LeMonde: laundering dirty money, extortion, fradulent bankruptcies, drug traficking, and arms infractions.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3234,36-342629,0.html