‘Flash crash trader’ due to be sentenced in the US

Tuesday 28th January 2020 15:45 EST
 

A British trader who was accused of helping to cause the 2010 Flash Crash, which temporarily lopped off $1 trillion in stock market value, has been sentenced in the United States this Tuesday.

Navinder Singh Sarao, 41, was arrested in 2015 for contributing to the volatility of May 6, 2010 when markets dropped five per cent in a five-minute period.

He did this over five years using an illegal market-technique called spoofing using a software program he designed himself called the NAVTRader. From his parents’ home in west London, he would blast and then quickly cancel mammoth sell orders.

In a case which has made headlines across the world, both the prosecution and the defence have recommended that Mr Sarao, who was extradited to the US, serve no additional jail time.

After he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and spoofing in 2016, the government had originally recommended a prison sentence of between 78 and 97 months.

Nicknamed the “flash crash trader”, Mr Sarao was diagnosed with autism after his arrest. His lawyers had argued he was too childlike to spend any time in prison and had treated markets like a computer game in his bedroom.


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