Scott: Forex trader faces extradition
Stuart Scott (45), HSBC’s former top currency trader can be extradited to face fraud charges in New York, a UK court has ruled only days after his ex-colleague was convicted on forex-ridding charges in the US.
The Westminster magistrates court did not deliberate on whether Mr. Stuart of Radlett in Hertfordshire, is guilty or not of the 11 wire-fraud charges that he faces and which he strongly denies. However, Mr. Scott’s lawyer said he would appeal against the decision as each count carries a maximum 30-year jail sentence, according to a US government court documents.
His alleged co-conspirator Mark Johnson, who was HSBC’s head of global cash foreign-exchange trading, was convicted in Brooklyn court on Monday 23rd October 2017.
Mr. Scott’s lawyer also said: “ We do not believe that the circumstances if properly analysed, constitute any criminal offence when apply UK law and this case is unique in that it is a UK centric case, and represents a far too aggressive assertion of the US jurisdiction.”
Judge Michael Snow ruled that extradition was warranted because of the “seriousness of the allegations and the public interest in honouring this country’s international obligations.”
The allegations against the two ex-HSBC traders are not about alleged collusion to rig forex benchmarks, but a simple front-running accusations that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Scott armed with confidential information that one of HSBC’s clients, Cairn Energy was about to execute a multibillion-dollar to sterling trade – hatched a scheme to rump up the price of sterling ahead of the deal.
According to the US, the trade made money for HSBC as Scott’s trades alone made $500, 000 in profit – but the cost to Cairn Energy was $8m which the company had separately settled with HSBC.
Only last year Navinder Singh Sarao the day trader dubbed as Hound of Hounslow failed in his bid to fight extradition and was sent to Chicago, and he is now co-operating with Department of Justice after pleading guilty to spoofing charges.
Currency trader Stuart Scott dismissed by HSBC in wake of the conspiracy to manipulate the £ 3 trillion a day foreign exchange market.