Deutsche Bank Settles Silver Price Rigging Case

Deutsche Bank AG (DB) has settled a private lawsuit accusing the German bank of manipulating silver futures prices. The terms of the payment amount were not disclosed.

It was in 2014 that silver futures trades sued Deutsche Bank (DB), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBC), accusing the firms of unlawfully manipulating the price of metal and its derivatives. They claimed that the banks, which are the largest silver bullion banks in the world, abused their power so they could dictate the price of silver. The banks would hold secret meetings daily and allegedly manipulate the price so they could illegitimately profit during trading. Meantime, other investors utilizing the silver benchmark in billions of dollars of transactions purportedly were harmed.

Deutsche Bank has admitted to manipulating gold and silver prices. It promised to provide any evidence it might have about other banks’ and their involvement, including electronic communications.

Claims have previously brought against financial firms over alleged gold price rigging. In 2014, Barclays Plc (BARC) was fined $43.8M for internal control failures that let a trader rig gold prices.

The fine against Barclays was failures that made it possible for a trader to fix the setting of gold prices. According to UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the former trader, Daniel James Plunket, fixed the price of gold so as to not have to pay a customer $3.9M under an option. This raised his own trading book by $1.75M. Plunket’s job at Barclays involved pricing products tied to the price of precious metals.

If you are an investor who has sustained losses that may be a result of negligence or fraud, please contact our stockbroker fraud law firm today. We, at Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD LLP our committed to helping our investor clients recoup their losses.

Deutsche Bank settles U.S. gold, silver price-fixing litigation, Reuters, April 14, 2016

Barclays Fined for Gold Rigging, Reuters, May 23, 2014