ASIC bans former Westpac trader
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned a trader employed at Westpac Institutional Bank after he was found to have created fictitious trading entries and created a false document between 2009 and 2010.
Jeremy Kaviraj Nambiar, from St Ives, was hired to trade on financial products including foreign exchange and cross currency swaps on behalf of Westpac.
But the regulator found he entered more than 100 fictitious trading entries, including off-market trades that built a faÁade of profit.
Investigations found some of the fictitious entries were created to cover up a loss of more than $1 million in AUD/USD spot foreign exchange.
As a consequence of Nambiar’s actions, around $17.6 million was written off the income statement of Westpac’s financial statements for the period ending 31 March 2011.
Nambiar did not personally gain from the trades as they were internal to Westpac. No customers were affected.
Nambiar worked in the fixed income division of investment bank Nomura Australia between 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he created a false e-mail claiming to be from an external broker containing broker quotes.
It was found the e-mail could mislead Nomura staff.
Nomura can appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to review ASIC’s decision.
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