Spitzer basks in glory for outing corrupt traders

It looks like the view for many bond and forex traders might be taking a distinctly grimmer turn over the next few months with the news that 47 currency traders in the US were arrested by the FBI on charges of corruption and fraudulent trading (as well as obstruction of justice, drug possession, gun possession and perjury).

We've grown accustomed to the media-staged perp-walks of high-profile business people in the States in the last couple of years, but, set beside these multiple arrests, the presence of a lone chief executive looks a bit paltry.

Among those taken into custody was Mr Stephen Moore, previously of the New York Federal Reserve's foreign exchange committee and currently the chief executive of Itrade, a forex trading company. Mr Moore, perhaps better connected than some of the others picked up, was released on a $300,000 (€254,000) bond and is vigorously protesting his innocence.

Joining New York State Attorney General, Mr Eliot Spitzer, in being on the side of good, clean trading, is the South New York State Attorney, Mr James Comey. Recently named by President George W Bush as Deputy US Attorney General, he proudly announced that the arrests were the culmination of a year and a half's work, which had been given the codename Operation Wooden Nickel.

It appears that an FBI agent went undercover in a forex trading operation posing as a "rogue hedge fund manager".

Traders from around 18 Wall Street firms have been arrested and according to Mr Comey, the malpractice has been going on for more than 20 years.

Does this surprise me? As any good economist would say - yes and no. Yes, because I find it hard to imagine that anyone conducting a forex sting would hang around for more than a year or two, but no because, in a market where prices move every nano-second, there is massive scope for putting together some kind of fraudulent operation.

And while many people can stay out of the way of temptation, it is difficult to stand to one side and not participate in something which seems undetectable.

A few years ago I was cold-called by someone, somewhere who'd got my name from something and who thought that I might be the sort of investor who could benefit from foreign exchange trading.

From my point of view I already had, since it had been my job for a couple of years and I was getting paid to do it. But I never had the slightest interest in trading on my own account. I'd seen professional positions come under the cosh too often to want to risk it with my own money!

Anyway, although I said no, I was interested in the amateurish spiel which basically promised me a no-risk way of benefiting from the amazing fluctuations in world currency markets.

I've no idea where the call came from geographically and can't remember the company the person concerned claimed to be calling from, but I presume it was from some kind of boiler room operation where the operators haven't a clue about trading anyway and all they want is for you to wire them the money.

But it's like time-share and all of the other too-good-to-be-true proposals that come your way, it feeds your vanity. You think of all those people with their fancy apartments and flash lifestyles and you want to be part of it. Next thing you know the savings are down the tubes and it's little consolation that the person who lured you in has finally been taken away in handcuffs.

Boiler room operations are part of the current case and the set-up seems to be somewhat similar to my own experience, where cold-callers solicit money from people to "trade" the market. The money usually ends up in an account controlled by the boiler-room operator.

Another aspect to the fraud has been an operation called "The Game" or "Points for Cash" where, prosecutors say, the trades were rigged to show losses for the traders' firms and profits for their clients.

The grateful clients then reward the traders by means of gifts or the ubiquitous brown paper envelope stuffed with cash.

The banks themselves are quick to point out that the amounts lost by them on the trades are paltry in comparison to the overall turnover of the market, which is in excess of $1 trillion a day and which isn't regulated in the same way as some other areas of financial trading, particularly as it's a 24-hour market.

As the banks and the securities houses reel from yet another blow to their prestige, Mr Spitzer just keeps on truckin'. He's continuing to investigate the late-trading allegations in the mutual funds industry where favoured players had been given the chance to trade after the closing prices for the day had already been set.

He complains that he doesn't have enough manpower to do everything, given that there are over 8,000 mutual funds operating. Mr Spitzer has become a beacon for all those who believe that big business is endemically corrupt and he's popular with jaded New Yorkers.

For the last 20 years or so, it's been the occupants of the top floor offices and the traders in the dealing rooms who have been held up as role models for the business community.

But with the chief executives of so many companies turning out to have feet of clay and with traders' remuneration coming under scrutiny in some cases for being based on non-existent or over-stated profits, people are turning to a new breed of people to look up to. It's just hard to believe that they're lawyers!