This is surprising. Rob Bogucki is very well known in FX Options trading, he was at Lehman for a long time then Barclays. To arrest him directly means the Feds have direct and concrete evidence on him. Good for the Feds. I remember when I first started out in the Biz as a junior coffee fetcher / associate almost 20 years ago, a fairly senior MD told me off the cuff, "You know, everyone on Wall St is a bit dirty, it is just a matter of degree." ... So true.
If the Feds have the traders' chat room transcripts, why don't they name those traders in the settlement documents?
The actual indictment here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1026696/download Couple of observations. The indictment is basesd on telephone conversations (seems from the trading desk) and chats (seems primarily Bloomberg chats), both are recorded and can easily be subpoena-ed. This is also back in 2011, so there *were* still some illusion that chats were not monitored and archived, traders today are much more careful if they are to engage in something like this. BarCap have a couple of other FX traders charged with benchmark rigging. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...trader-ashton-draws-1-2-million-fine-from-fed
Why was FX investigated, but FX options were left out? The potential gains in FX options would be bigger than in FX. This Bogucki character is just scratching the surface.
The Feds take these guyss and flip them. More coming in FX options. Did Bogucky get a lighter sentence for being "an early cooperator"?
In my opinion, having dealt with regulators and enforcement agencies before, is that they are focused on "damaging to the general public", far more than the amount of illegal gains. In the FX Benchmark rigging case, naturally more of the "general public" are potentially damaged by the collusion (similar to the LIBOR rigging a few years back). In the FX Option front-running case(s), the damaged FX Option customer entity tend to be large-corporate entities or sophisticated investors, so the view is that "damage to public" is less. Within FX business at ibanks, FX derivatives are far more profitable revenue wise by cash FX, that has been the way the business has been for almost 20 years now. Same thing with equity derivatives are more profitable than cash equities.