Back in April, when we
first reported that Deutsche Bank had agreed to settle allegations it had
rigged the silver market in exchange for $38 million, we revealed something
stunning: “in a curious twist, the settlement letter revealed that the former
members of the manipulation cartel have turned on each other“, and
that Deutsche Bank would provide docments implicating other precious metals
riggers. To wit: “In addition to valuable monetary consideration, Deutsche
Bank has also agreed to provide cooperation to plaintiffs, including the
production of instant messages, and other electronic communications, as part
of the settlement. In Plaintiff’s estimation, the cooperation to be provided
by Deutsche Bank will substantially assist Plaintiffs in the prosecution of
their claims against the non-settling defendants.”
Overnight we finally got a glimpse into what this “production” contained,
and according to documents filed by the plaintiffs in the class action
lawsuit, what Deutsche Bank provided as part of its settlement was nothing
short of “smoking gun” proof that UBS Group AG, HSBC
Holdings Plc, Bank of Nova Scotia and other firms rigged the
silver market. The allegation, as Bloomberg
first noted, came in a filing Wednesday in a Manhattan federal court
lawsuit filed in 2014 by individuals and entities that bought or sold futures
contracts.
In the document records surrendered by Deutsche Bank and presented below,
traders and submitters were captured coordinating trades in advance
of a daily phone call, manipulating the spot market for silver, conspiring to
fix the spread on silver offered to customers and using illegal strategies to
rig prices.
“Plaintiffs are now able to plead with direct, ‘smoking gun’
evidence,’ including secret electronic chats involving silver
traders and submitters across a number of financial institutions, a
multi-year, well-coordinated and wide-ranging conspiracy to rig the prices,”
the plaintiffs said in their filing.
The latest evidence is critical because as the plaintiffs add, the new
scheme “far surpasses the conspiracy alleged earlier.” As a
result, the litigants are seeking permission to file a new complaint with the
additional allegations, i.e., demand even more reparations from the
defendants who have not yet settled, and perhaps even more evidence of
ongoing market rigging. Their proposed complaint broadens the case beyond the
four banks initially sued to include claims against units of Barclays Plc,
BNP Paribas Fortis SA, Standard Chartered Plc and Bank of America Corp.
Representatives of UBS, BNP Paribas Fortis, HSBC, Standard Chartered and
Scotiabank didn’t immediately respond to e-mails outside regular business
hours seeking comment on the allegations. Barclays and Bank of America
declined to immediately comment.
The Deutsche Bank documents show, among other things, how two UBS
traders communicated directly with two Deutsche Bank traders and discussed
ways to rig the market. The traders shared customer order-flow
information, improperly triggered customer stop-loss orders, and engaged in
practices such as spoofing, all meant to destabilize the price of silver
ahead of the fix and result in forced selling or buying. It is also what has
led on so many occasions to the infamous previous metals “slam”, when out of
nowhere billions in notional contracts emerge, usually with the intent to
sell, to halt any upside moment in the precious metals/
“UBS was the third-largest market maker in the silver spot market and
could directly influence the prices of silver financial instruments based on
the sheer volume of silver it traded,” the plaintiffs allege. “Conspiring
with other large market makers, like Deutsche Bank and HSBC, only increased
UBS’s ability to influence the market.”
Some examples of the chats quoted are shown below. In the first example a
chart between DB and HSBC traders in which one HSBC trader says “really wanna
sel sil[ver” to which the other trader says “Let’s go and smash it together.”
Another chat transcript from May 11, 2011 reveals a Deutsche Bank trader
telling a UBS trader that the cartel “WERE THE SILVER MARKET”(sic) based on
feedback from outside traders to which UBS replies, referring to the silver
market “we smashed it good”, leading to the following lament “fking
hell UBS now u make me regret not joining.”
Finally, for all those traders who wonder what happened to their stops as
a result of dramatic moves in the price, here is the answer: a June 2011 chat
between a UBS and a DB trader comes down to the following: “if you have
stops… who ya gonna call… STOP BUSTERS”
If the plaintiff request for an expanded lawsuit is granted, we expect
many more fireworks as other banks rush to settle on their own and provide
even more documentary proof of unprecedented precious metal market
manipulation, until there is just one bank left standing, ostensibly the one
slammed with the biggest fine of all, perhaps even leading to prison time for
some of the market riggers.
The full filings from the case (London Silver Fixing Ltd. Antitrust
Litigation, 1:14-md-02573 U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
(Manhattan) are provided below:
