https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/01/15/no-jail-time-hound-hounslow-urge-us-authorities/ The bedroom trader who contributed to the 2010 “Flash Crash” should be spared a jail sentence, US authorities have said. The US Department of Justice recommended to a Chicago court that Navinder Singh Sarao, a British citizen, be shown leniency because of his “extraordinary cooperation”, his autism diagnosis and the serious risk that a longer sentence would pose to his mental health. The authorities also cited the fact that 41-year-old Mr Sarao, dubbed the “Hound of Hounslow”, never spent most of the £45m that he made from his trading. Mr Sarao pleaded guilty to charges of spoofing – a trading technique used to distort the price of a share by creating orders with no intention of fulfilling them and then cancelling them before they can be fulfilled – and wire fraud in November 2016. The operation relied on speed in an era when trading was rapidly changing due to the advent of high speed broadband that allowed banks and other financial institutions to trade in milliseconds using algorithms. Mr Sarao, who was arrested in the UK in 2015, has been assisting US authorities with their investigation of other cases since his plea. He set up a one-man trading business from his parents’ semi-detached house near Heathrow airport in south-west London in 2005 after working in banking and at trading firm Futex. The trader was accused of playing a part in the "flash crash" on May 6 2010, a five-minute spell during which US markets plummeted by 5pc, wiping hundreds of billions of dollars off the value of American companies. Mr Sarao subsequently spent four months in a London jail and the US commenced extradition proceedings against him. A longer spell behind bars would do nothing deter other traders, US authorities argued in their court submission.
Wow, he still hasn't been sentenced by now ? Incredible. I think most of us will agree: "Go Nav !". I hope he gets some leniency here. Note: I'm not a big fan of the CME Group which I consider the "Evil Empire" with a monopolistic position.
I hope for leniency too, even a suspended sentence. He was not part of an evil corporate plot, he was an intelligent guy working from his bed-room. To be honest, I think its the system gate-keepers who let this happen who deserve less leniency.
Oh YES....the CME Group is so irresponsible in this regard. They could have programmed their servers to reject the bogus orders....but they did not. Instead, they issued a written warning. That is so lame given their power and resources.