Hedge fund Glen Point, founder Phillips sued by CFTC over alleged trading scheme

Glen Point Capital and founder Neil Phillips were sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for allegedly scheming to trigger payouts on two options contracts totaling $30 million.

Following one series of trades, the CFTC says in its lawsuit, a supervisor at the brokerage firm that executed the trades heard how they went down and reacted bluntly.

"Jesus," he said, according to the complaint.

The suit, filed Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, broadens the legal issues for Mr. Phillips, who was charged by federal prosecutors in New York about three months ago with scheming to manipulate the $7.5 trillion daily market for foreign exchange. He is awaiting extradition from an Airbnb on the Spanish island of Ibiza, where he was arrested while on vacation.Mr. Phillips declined to comment on the CFTC suit. The agency said it had no comment beyond the complaint.

Wall Street remains divided on whether barrier chasing, a bet that a currency will break through a specified level, should be allowed. Some traders think any trade that takes on risk should be permissible, while others consider it manipulation.

Now, with the CFTC adding its civil suit on top of the Justice Department's criminal charges, the case could become something of a referendum on what's historically been considered fair game in the forex market.

The CFTC suit refers to two series of transactions, one of which appears to be the same one cited by the prosecutors. Mr. Phillips' hedge fund bought a digital option for the dollar-rand currency pair in late October 2017 that was set to expire on Jan. 2, 2018. The option had a notional value of $20 million and a barrier rate of 12.50 rand to the dollar, entitling the fund to a payment in that amount if the rate went below the barrier before the expiration date.

Prosecutors say Phillips began making spot trades to push the exchange rate lower on Christmas Day, directing a Singapore-based salesperson at an unidentified brokerage firm to sell $725 million in exchange for more than 9 billion rand. The aim was to send the rate below the barrier and trigger the option, allowing Phillips to collect more than $15.6 million from the deal. The firm, which the U.S. identified only as Bank 3, is Nomura.Lawton King, a spokesperson for Nomura, declined to comment on the CFTC suit.

Soon after the trades, employees at the brokerage firm seemed to realize the gravity of the situation, according to the CFTC suit, with the salesperson who pushed through the trades telling his supervisor that he tried to not directly respond to Phillips' "very explicit" communications but couldn't just stop trading.

"I just wanted you to be aware because there wasn't really any way I could tell [Phillips], 'No, we're just gonna stop while i confirm with compliance or whatever," the salesperson said, according to the complaint.

The supervisor's frank, one-word assessment followed soon after.

The CFTC alleges Phillips engaged in another barrier chase three days later with the same bank, to drive the exchange rate below a 12.25 rand-per-dollar rate, triggering a $10 million payout tied to another option.

Glen Point closed this year after an aborted merger with rival hedge fund Eisler Capital.

The case is Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Glen Point Capital Advisors LP, 22-cv-10589, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).