A British trader accused of bragging that ripping off a client was like “f—ing Christmas” was sentenced to two years in prison on Thursday amid a global crackdown on currency rigging.
Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis deemed Mark Johnson, a former top HSBC trader who’s worth about $2 million, a flight risk and denied him bail to visit his family as he ordered that he be jailed immediately.
Johnson, who was convicted in October of masterminding a $3.5 billion scam, showed little emotion as was led out of the courtroom without a tie, belt, or shoelaces by a US Marshall soon after the judge adjourned the court. It appeared that no friends or relatives were present.
The ex-trader was also hit with a $300,000 fine and five years of probation.
Johnson, 52, is the first person to be sentenced to prison for rigging the world’s currency markets for his role in front-running a giant, $3.5 billion trade by Cairn Energy, a multinational oil and gas company, in 2011.
In the front-running scam, Johnson and a co-worker, Stuart Scott, bought British pounds from a bank’s account ahead of the giant Cairn order — thus falsely inflating the price of the currency and the fees paid by Cairn.
Johnson and Scott allegedly made $8 million for themselves and the company on the front-running trades. Scott, who like Johnson is a UK citizen, was arrested in England in June and lost his fight against extradition in October.
In October, a jury found Johnson guilty of eight counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. He was nabbed by federal agents in July 2016 in a high-stakes sting as he was about to board a plane at JFK Airport.
During the trial, the jury heard evidence where Johnson bragged about how he “got away with” ripping off Cairn, and declaring it “f—ing Christmas” immediately after the fraudulent transaction had gone through.
HSBC wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing.
The upcoming prison stint is a victory for the Justice Department, even though government lawyers had sought at least seven years behind bars.
“Mark Johnson exploited confidential information and betrayed a client in order to generate profits for HSBC and enrich himself,” Brooklyn federal prosecutor Richard P. Donoghue said in a statement.
Lawyers for Johnson wanted their client to serve house arrest in the UK and to check in with retired probation officers living there, an arrangement that Garaufis scoffed at.
“It’s not as if he lives in Bay Ridge,” the judge said.
After the judge adjourned the sentencing, Johnson’s lawyer, Frank Wohl, could be heard on his cellphone talking about filing an “emergency” appeal to the judge.
“We’ll certainly appeal,” Frank Wohl, Johnson’s attorney, told reporters as he exited the courtroom