Ex-Deutsche Bank forex trader in Singapore admits cheating bank

[SINGAPORE] A former foreign-exchange trader from Deutsche Bank AG admitted that he cheated the bank by making false trades.

Toh Hway Khuan, 51, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to 13 charges relating to using the bank's account to get preferential rates on the US dollar in November 2009.

The former spot trader was charged in 2015 with 39 counts where he's accused of buying and selling more than US$250 million and unlawfully making about S$140,000. He faces as long as seven years in prison and a fine for each charge.

Prosecutor Muhamad Imaduddin sought a three-month jail term to deter those in the financial industry from making personal gains through deceitful means. Toh failed to disclose his beneficial ownership in the trades, and his offenses were difficult to detect, the prosecutor told the Singapore High Court

The defendant's lawyer Lee Teck Leng sought a "high fine", rather than a prison sentence, saying the bank didn't suffer actual losses and there was no market impact from Toh's conduct.

Toh, who has been jobless since leaving Deutsche Bank in 2010, will be sentenced at a later date.

The offenses happened around the time of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's review of attempts by banks to rig currency benchmarks in 2007 to 2011.

The regulator censured 20 banks in 2013 and ordered them to improve internal controls. Probes into the rigging of foreign-exchange markets and interest-rate benchmarks have led to lenders across the globe paying billions of dollars in fines and an overhaul of how such rates are set.

The criminal case is Public Prosecutor v Toh Hway Khuan, CC6/2017. Singapore High Court.

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