Drunk trader banned for buying 7m barrels of oil after binge

Former oil trader Steven Perkins executed such a high volume of trades that he pushed up the price of Brent crude, the FSA said


* Jill Treanor
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 June 2010 13.41 BST


A former oil futures broker who went on a weekend drinking binge before blacking out and trading more than 7m barrels of oil has been banned from working in the City for at least five years by the Financial Services Authority.

Steven Perkins had been suspended since July last year when the large volume of trading was discovered by the London-based oil broker PVM Oil Futures where he had worked since 1998.

The disciplinary action taken by the City regulator also includes a £72,000 fine which would have been £150,000 if the FSA had not taken in to account the financial hardship this would have caused the trader, who had repeatedly lied to his employer to cover up his activities.

The FSA discovered illicit trading during a 19-hour period on 29 and 30 June and found that he had sent a text message to his boss saying he would not be able to come to work because a relative was unwell.

He was a broker in Brent crude on the international commodities futures market, the ICE, which meant he was only supposed to execute trades on behalf of clients.

The decision notice published by the FSA said: "Mr Perkins' explanation for his trading on 29 and 30 June is that he was drunk. He says that he drank heavily throughout the weekend and continued drinking from around midday on Monday 29 June. He claims to have limited recollection of events on Monday and claims to have been in an alcohol-induced blackout at the time he traded in the early hours of 30 June."

He had begun trading on 29 July 2009 purportedly on behalf of a customer - dubbed Client A by the FSA - but only one of these trades was actually for the customer who ended up with a position of $8m (£5.3m).

Not fit and proper

In the early hours of 30 June he traded again, this time from home, and executed such a high volume of trades that he gave a "false and misleading impression as to the supply, demand and price" of Brent oil which was raised to an "abnormal and artificial level". At times he was responsible for 69% of the volume traded.

This was market manipulation, the FSA said, and also showed that he was not fit and proper – one of the FSA's key tests – to work in the City. His activities also caused damage to the reputation of the ICE.

He was not technically at work on the 29th – a Monday – as he was travelling back from a PVM golf weekend in the morning and started drinking again around midday.

Alexander Justham, director of markets at the FSA, said: "Perkins' drunkenness does not excuse his market abuse. Perkins has been banned because he is not a fit and proper person to be involved in regulated activities and his behaviour posed a risk to the proper functioning of the market.

"The FSA views market manipulation extremely seriously. Perkins' trading caused disruption to the market and has been met with both a fine and prohibition. This reinforces the fact that a severe sanction will apply in cases of market manipulation, even where no profit is made."

His five-year ban is intended to give him chance to rehabilitate himself.

"In July 2009, Mr Perkins joined a rehabilitation programme for alcoholics and since that time has stopped drinking. For this reason, the FSA considers that it is possible that Mr Perkins may be rehabilitated over time and may be fit and proper again in the future. Therefore, the prohibition is expressed to be for a minimum period of five years, at which point the FSA may be minded to revoke the prohibition."

The FSA is allowing Perkins to pay the £72,000 in 36 equal instalments of £2,000 per month, ending in November 2013.

Drunk trader banned for buying 7m barrels of oil after binge | Business | guardian.co.uk

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I'm not really seeing the basis for the claim that this was market manipulation. If he bought them he bought them, and the price reflects that.