MANY OF THE big market-manipulation scandals over the past decade have much in common: huge fines for the investment banks, criminal charges for the traders and an embarrassing paper trail revealing precisely what bank employees got up to. Interest-rate traders who manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) messaged each other with pleas to put their fixes in low. Foreign-exchange traders infamously called a chat room in which they discussed rigging exchange rates "the cartel". The case against JPMorgan Chase for manipulating precious-metals and Treasury markets has many of the usual features. On September 29th it admitted to wrongdoing in relation to the actions of employees who, authorities claim, fraudulently rigged markets tens of thousands of times in 2008-16. The bank agreed to pay $920m to settle various probes by regulators and law enforcement; this includes a $436.4m fine, $311.7m in restitution to parties harmed by the practices and $172m in disgorgement (ie, paying back unlawfully earned profits). Some of the traders involved face criminal charges. If convicted, they are likely to spend time in jail.
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