Navinder Singh Sarao

The federal court sentenced Sarao to time already served, approximately four months in the United Kingdom, plus one year of home confinement. The government requested no additional imprisonment, citing his extraordinary cooperation, autism diagnosis and other personal factors.

Attribution

Accused

Sarao was arrested in London at the request of the United States. A federal grand jury subsequently indicted him on 22 counts, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, manipulation and spoofing. He challenged his extradition before British courts before ultimately being sent to the United States.

Attribution

Accused

Sarao was extradited to the United States on 7 November 2016 and, two days later, pleaded guilty before a federal court in Chicago to one count of wire fraud and one of spoofing. He expressly acknowledged the mechanism of false orders and the use of genuine orders to profit from artificially induced price movements.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Accused

Sarao used an automated trading programme and other techniques to place thousands of orders he did not intend to execute, creating a false impression of supply and demand in E-mini S&P 500 futures. He admitted earning at least 12.8 million dollars in illicit profits from the scheme.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Directly implicated

On the day of the Flash Crash, Sarao's algorithm modified its orders more than 81,000 times; only 81 lots were executed. According to the CFTC order, his orders at times represented 20 to 29% of the sell side of the order book, contributing to an extreme imbalance and artificial prices.

State of the evidence

Established by a court