Australia financial regulator ASIC has announced that former Deutsche Bank AG (FRA:DBK) FX options and futures trader, Andrew Donaldson, of Bronte NSW, has been charged with 85 offences under s184(2) of the Corporations Act 2001 in respect of using his position as an employee dishonestly with the intention of directly or indirectly gaining an advantage for himself. Mr. Donaldson’s charges were first listed before Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on 6 February 2018.
ASIC alleges that between July 2013 and June 2014, Mr. Donaldson recorded false transactions and false fixed cashflows in Deutsche Bank’s internal systems in relation to financial products, including US Treasury Note Futures. By making these false entries in Deutsche’s records, Mr. Donaldson falsely increased his reported trading profits and temporarily offset trading losses he had suffered.
The false entries related to trades purported to have been carried out by Mr. Donaldson on behalf of Deutsche Bank. As the entries related to trades that were never executed in the market, no external parties were affected.
Mr. Donaldson did not enter a plea on this occasion and the matter was adjourned to 10 April 2018.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter.
In September 2016, ASIC permanently banned Andrew Donaldson from providing financial services, after an ASIC delegate found that he had engaged in serious conduct by contravening a financial services law (that is, engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to a financial product), and Mr. Donaldson was not of good fame and character. He was dismissed from Deutsche Bank in September 2014.