Former JPMorgan Trader Must Serve 8 Months for Price-Fixing Scheme

(Bloomberg) -- A former JPMorgan Chase & Co. currency trader must spend eight months behind bars after a federal appeals court on Monday refused to overturn his sentence for plotting to manipulate European, Middle Eastern and African currencies. 

A New York jury in 2019 convicted Akshay Aiyer of conspiring with traders at other banks to rig bids and fix prices in currency markets, and he was sentenced in 2020. His lawyers appealed, claiming the judge failed to consider evidence showing that the illegal trading lacked anticompetitive effects.

“The district court acted within its broad discretion in strictly limiting the admission of Aiyer’s competitive effects evidence at trial to the issue of intent,” U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco wrote in the opinion. 

Aiyer’s conviction was part of a sweeping government crackdown on collusion in currency markets. He conspired with traders from other banks through chat rooms and other means of communication to reveal currency positions, trading strategies, bids and offers, according to court filings. 

Aiyer had remained free on bail pending his appeal. In addition to his eight-month sentence, he was to pay a $150,000 fine.

The lower court case is U.S. v. Aiyer, 18-cr-333, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). 

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