Back in April, we reported that one of the pillars in the gold-trading business, Bank of Nova Scotia’s ScotiaMocatta business was closing after failing to find a buyer in a sale process that had started in late 2017. As we further reported, Scotia was for years the world’s biggest lender to the physical precious metals industry, with a history stretching to the founding in 1684 of London gold dealer Mocatta Bullion, which it bought in 1997. Once a global player with more than 100 staff in offices from New York and London to India and Hong Kong, the bank effectively exited the business in 2018 following the abovementioned strategic review and unsuccessful attempt to find a buyer.
The sudden exit of one of the core precious metal traders left many wondering if some big news was about to hit. Well, that’s precisely what happened, because earlier today the Department of Justice announced that Bank of Nova Scotia has agreed to pay more than $127 million in fines to settle criminal investigations into a price manipulation scheme in the price of precious metals that saw the participation of at least four of itw traders.
The fines consist of $60.4 million to the Department of Justice with the remainder going to the CFTC in the form of two monetary penalties of $42 million and $17 million.
“Today, Scotiabank has admitted to their role in a massive price manipulation scheme aimed at falsely manufacturing the prices of precious metals futures contracts to serve the bank’s best interests,” said Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. of the FBI’s New York Field Office.