Currency Trading Executive Charged With Front-running Orders: WSJ

Mark Johnson, the global head of foreign-exchange cash trading at HSBC, was arrested Tuesday evening at JFK airport and charged with front-running customer orders, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Federal prosecutors allege that Johnson and Stuart Scott, the former European head of currency trading, traded ahead of a client's purchase of $3.4 billion worth of British pounds, WSJ reported. They have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Scott, who hasn't been arrested according to WSJ, was fired by HSBC in December 2014 after the London-based bank paid a $618 million fine to regulators for its role in a foreign-exchange trading scandal.