Newest Criminal Spoofing Case Features Coordinated Spoofing, Front Running

On Thurs., June 1, the Justice Department entered into a plea agreement with a trader named David Liew, publicly revealing the existence of the third-ever criminal spoofing case, which had been filed under seal on Jan. 3.

In the plea agreement, Liew admitted that from December 2009 to February 2012 he conspired with other precious metal traders to engage in spoofing on hundreds of occasions and to commit fraud by misleading other market participants via his spoof trades. Liew's former bank is not identified in the plea agreement, although Bloomberg recently reported that Liew committed the offenses while he worked at Deutsche Bank. Liew's co-conspirators are also unidentified and have not yet been charged.