Bro cashed out way too much

[u/be_you_tiful-]

A man working from his parents' house in West London made tens of millions of dollars trading futures from a bedroom filled with stuffed toys. His name is Navinder Singh Sarao, and he's on the autism spectrum.

There was no Wall Street trading floor. Sarao worked out of the family home in Hounslow, using a customized trading program on an ordinary desktop computer, and by most accounts he lived a pretty quiet life.

Then came May 6, 2010. In a matter of minutes, US stock markets plunged, and nearly $1 trillion in value briefly vanished before prices bounced back. It became known as the Flash Crash.

Years later, US authorities said Sarao's spoofing helped make it worse. Prosecutors said he placed large sell orders he never intended to fill, then canceled them, which pushed prices down so he could profit from the swings. They said his strategy was running on the day of the crash, and that he made more than $40 million from this kind of trading over several years.

Sarao fought extradition from the UK for years. He eventually pleaded guilty to wire fraud and spoofing in the US. His lawyers pointed to his autism, and the judge sentenced him to time served followed by home confinement rather than more prison time, citing his cooperation with prosecutors.

[u/stilldebugging]

I’m kind of wondering if he was just doing this for lulz and didn’t make money, could he have still been charged? It sounds like the charges relate to market manipulation and making fraudulent orders with the intent to cancel them.

[u/Low-Car-6331 → u/stilldebugging]

Yes, the stock market is heavily regulated because their are firms who will hire lawyer just to read the laws and find any type of loophole possible, just because there is tons of money to be made. Commodity market price manipulation is the exact crime, but under today's laws it would be under the "Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" which specifically made this type of activity illegal.

Trust me, the last thing you want is an unregulated stock market, go through the history books of 1850 through 1950's if you want to see what happens when you remove laws around it. Heck, 2008 crash was thanks to wall street realizing it could create high grade securities from worthless mortgages by relying on arbitrage math (which is now illegal).

[u/Sochi540 → u/stilldebugging]

He wouldve been charged worst because the defendant is being kept on a short leash, remember he didn't sell all his stocks. He still has important stocks under his belt.

[u/Sochi540 → u/Sochi540]

Even if he emptied his account legally, he's done for.

[u/RzLa → u/Sochi540]

From what I remember, he got duped as well. The place(s) he held the money said they didn’t have it

[u/Sochi540 → u/RzLa]

Yep, he probs still has something tho. And he's gonna trade again, it's strange. I rly don't wana know more. Believe or it I only know what I know I don't know the after of a sentence