BofA to Pay $5.56 Million to End DOJ Market Manipulation Case

A Bank of America Corp. unit will pay $5.56 million to resolve a US Department of Justice investigation into allegations that two former employees participated in market manipulation schemes.

The unit, BofA Securities, agreed to contribute $3.6 million to a victim compensation fund as well as give up another $1.96 million in ill-gotten gains, the DOJ said in a statement Thursday. As part of the deal, the company won’t be prosecuted.

The case stems from allegations that two BofA Securities traders separately engaged in schemes to manipulate the secondary market for US Treasuries from 2014 through 2020. Collectively, the US said the former employees entered more than 1,000 suspected spoof orders during the period, the DOJ said.

In 2023, Bank of America Corp. agreed to pay a $24 million fine to end a Finra probe related to the two traders. The company didn’t admit to or deny the allegations as part of the settlement with Finra, which regulates brokerage firms that do business with the public.

One of the traders, Tyler Forbes, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to related charges and was sentenced to time served and a $15,000 fine.

A spokesperson for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America declined to comment.

--With assistance from Katherine Doherty.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

Anthony Aarons, Steve Dickson

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