Deutsche Bank Warning To Employees Re: Not Joking About Market Manipulation Would've Been More Useful To Robert Wallden Yesterday!

At the end of October, Deutsche Bank held a town hall on the topic of electronic communication, specifically the perils of making statements re: engaging in fraud, even in jest. To be safe, one should reserve such riffing for face-to-face conversations, or, to avoid headaches in the form of house calls from the FBI, insert some sort of disclaimer in the chat making clear that any talk of breaking the law is not to be taken seriously. Clearly, these are good tips that Deutsche employees will presumably employ moving forward. Unfortunately, they came a bit too late for trader Richard Whalen, who in retrospect would've appreciated hearing them before taking part in the "ill-advised" banter that led to this:

One morning this month, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed up unannounced at the home of a New York-based currencies trader for Deutsche Bank. The agents showed him transcripts of an electronic chat in which the trader appeared to boast about trying to manipulate foreign-exchange markets, according to people familiar with the incident...People close to Deutsche Bank say the incident stemmed from a misunderstanding based at least partly on the trader having made a joke, in writing, about his ability to manipulate markets. Mr. Wallden remains a Deutsche Bank employee and hasn't been suspended, these people say...

At a town-hall meeting in Deutsche Bank's London offices Oct. 22, executives warned employees that things they write in electronic chat sessions that are intended to be light-hearted or jokes can look sinister if read out of context, according to someone at the meeting. Weeks later, when the FBI visited Mr. Wallden, he declined to comment to them about the contents of the chat transcript that the agents brought with them, according to the people familiar with the incident. In the chat, which took place around Christmas in a recent year, the trader made grandiose boasts about his ability to influence currencies markets, these people say. After the agents left his home, the trader called his managers at Deutsche Bank, these people say. The bank conducted a thorough but continuing review, which has so far found that the trader was making an ill-advised joke, these people say.

FBI Tries New Tactic in Currency Probe [WSJ]