Bridgeport, Connecticut - NatWest Markets Plc (NatWest), a London, U.K.-based global banking and financial services firm, pleaded guilty Tuesday to various fraud schemes in the markets for U.S. Treasury securities and futures contracts.
NatWest pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud in connection with a criminal information filed today in the District of Connecticut. U.S. District Judge Omar A. Williams accepted the pleas and sentenced NatWest to pay approximately $35 million in a criminal fine, restitution, and forfeiture. NatWest also will serve three years of probation and will agree to the imposition of an independent compliance monitor.
“As we have previously warned, there will be serious consequences for a company that breaches the terms of an agreement with the government. Today’s guilty plea by NatWest and the associated penalty show exactly that,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “Company executives should realize that investment in compliance programs can avoid situations like this, and take action accordingly.”
“NatWest is a repeat offender,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Leonard C Boyle for the District of Connecticut. “In this instance, a criminal conviction was an appropriate penalty, given the conduct of NatWest’s supervisors, its compliance deficiencies, and its decision not to take the steps required to fulfill its agreement with this office that resolved a prior securities fraud scheme.”
“NatWest’s schemes were egregious – spanning multiple years and countries – and the sentencing today reflects that,” said Deputy Director Paul M. Abbate of the FBI. “Let this case be an example that the FBI will not tolerate companies that fraudulently interfere in U.S. markets for their own gain. The FBI and our law enforcement partners are dedicated to protecting the integrity of our financial institutions and the Americans who use them.”
“For over six years, NatWest engaged in separate fraud schemes to manipulate the market and unlawfully enrich themselves,” said Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group. “Those who engage in this type of abuse of power should know they cannot escape detection and will be held accountable for their actions. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is proud to work alongside our fellow law enforcement partners to protect the integrity of the financial marketplace and it’s participants.”
According to court documents and NatWest admissions, between January 2008 and May 2014, NatWest traders in London and Stamford, Connecticut, independently engaged in schemes to defraud in connection with the purchase and sale of U.S. Treasury futures contracts. Separately, in 2018, two other traders employed at NatWest’s Singapore branch engaged in a fraud scheme in connection with the purchase and sale of U.S. Treasury securities in the secondary (cash) market.
In each scheme, NatWest traders engaged in “spoofing” by placing orders with the intent to cancel those orders before execution, attempting to profit by deceiving other market participants by injecting false and misleading information regarding the existence of genuine supply and demand in the market. The spoof orders were designed to artificially push up or down the prevailing market price so that the NatWest traders could trade more profitably as a result of these schemes. In some instances, one of the NatWest traders took advantage of the close correlation between U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. Treasury futures contracts and engaged in cross-market manipulation by placing spoof orders in the futures market in order to profit from trading in the cash market.
The 2018 securities fraud scheme constituted a material breach of the Oct. 25, 2017 Non-Prosecution Agreement between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut and NatWest’s U.S. broker-dealer subsidiary, NatWest Markets Securities Inc. (formerly RBS Securities Inc.), and occurred while NatWest (formerly The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc) was on probation following its May 20, 2015 guilty plea and Jan. 5, 2017 sentencing for conspiring to manipulate the foreign currency exchange market.
A number of relevant considerations contributed to the department’s criminal resolution with NatWest, including the nature and seriousness of the offense, NatWest’s substantial prior history of other criminal conduct and civil and regulatory actions against it, its breach of a prior agreement, and the state of NatWest’s compliance program.
The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated this matter.
Acting Deputy Chief Avi Perry and Trial Attorney Elise Kent Bernanke of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Francis of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut are prosecuting the case.
