London-based Mark Johnson taken into custody in New York airport
Mark Johnson is the global head of foreign exchange cash trading at HSBC in London. He was taken into custody yesterday and will appear in a Federal court today on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
He's the first person to be charged in the three-year investigation into FX rigging.
From Johnson's bio:
"Prior to joining HSBC in 2010, he was founding managing partner and chief investment officer at Johnson Stewart Partners. Before that, he was global head of trading at Deutsche Bank."
Yesterday the Federal Reserve banned an ex-UBS trader over FX rigging and fined banks. He's reportedly helping US prosecutors build currency-rigging cases against others.
Update: The WSJ reports that the charges relate to front-running a $3.4 billion GBP order. He's charged alongside Stuart Scott, the former HSBC European head of currency trading at HSBC.
