Jason Katz pleads guilty in Federal court
A former Barclays trader who later worked at BNP Parbas pleaded guilty in Federal court to participating in a price-fixing conspiracy. He's the first person convicted or to admit wrongdoing in the series of collusion probes but many firms have paid huge fines.
That's a tough break in an industry where much worse went on for many years.
The plea appears to be part of a deal with prosecutors but there's no word yet on a sentence.
The Fed also just released a statement on Katz that bans him from the industry:
"The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced it is permanently prohibiting Jason Katz, a former foreign exchange (FX) trader at Barclays PLC and later at BNP Paribas SA, from participating in the banking industry, because of his actions to manipulate FX prices. Through the use of electronic chat rooms, Katz coordinated his trading with competitors, engaged competitors to agree on the FX prices quoted to customers, disclosed confidential customer information to traders at other institutions, and engaged in other unsafe or unsound practices. Katz is separately pleading guilty to violating federal antitrust laws.
Katz agreed to enter into a consent order with the Federal Reserve Board barring him from the banking industry and requiring him to cooperate in the Federal Reserve Board's ongoing investigation. The enforcement action against Katz follows the Board's May 2015 enforcement action against Barclays for unsafe and unsound practices related to compliance and control failures concerning practices in the FX markets. That action required Barclays to pay $342 million in penalties for control deficiencies related to FX trading."
