The Securities and Exchange Commission, Finra and the U.S. Department of Justice today that TD Securities (USA) has accepted $28 million in penalties  for manipulating the U.S. Treasury cash securities market through an illicit trading strategy—a fraudulent tactic known as "spoofing."

The bank was also charged for failing to supervise a former head of its U.S. Treasurys trading desk who made hundreds of illegal trades over a 13-month period, the three regulators said.

In addition to being fined $6.9 million by the SEC and $6 million by Finra, TD Securities entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the spoofing violations and agreed to pay $15.5 million in a criminal monetary penalty, forfeiture and victim compensation, the DOJ announced.

The former head of the TD Securities desk that was responsible for the spoofing, Jeyakumar Nadarajah, was indicted on Nov. 7 in U.S. District Court in New Jersey connection with this scheme and is awaiting trial, the DOJ said.

“TD Securities placed hundreds of orders to buy and sell U.S. Treasuries that it never intended to execute, in order to deceive market participants and manipulate prices by creating the false appearance of supply and demand,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a prepared statement.

“Such efforts to profit through unlawful trading undermine public confidence in U.S. Treasuries markets and defraud other market participants. The Criminal Division is committed to ensuring the integrity of our financial markets and holding accountable those who engage in deceptive trading practices,” Argentieri added.

In response to the enforcement actions, TD Securities issued the following statement: "We take regulatory and employee conduct violations very seriously. We took action five years ago to report Mr. Nadarajah' behaviour to FINRA, terminated his employment and have since enhanced our monitoring and compliance capabilities. TD Securities values the trust our clients place in us and we are committed to meeting their ongoing needs."

Between April 2018 and May 2019, the former TD Securities trader spoofed the U.S. Treasury cash securities market by entering orders on one side of the market that he had no intention of executing “so he could obtain more favorable execution prices on bona fide orders he was entering simultaneously on the other side of the market,” the SEC said.

After the real orders were filled, resulting in profits to TD Securities, the trader canceled the non-bona-fide orders, the SEC said.

The SEC’s order also found that TD Securities “lacked adequate controls and that it failed to take reasonable steps to scrutinize the trader after receiving warnings of his potentially irregular trading activity.”

“Manipulative and deceptive trading undermines the integrity of our markets,” Mark Cave, associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a prepared statement. “Broker-dealers and other firms cannot ignore their employees’ manipulative conduct and must take meaningful steps to detect and prevent it. Today’s action results from our continuing commitment to combating illicit trading.”

TD Securities consented to the entry of the SEC’s order finding that it violated an antifraud provision of the federal securities laws and failed to reasonably supervise the trader. As a result of the order, TD Securities was further ordered to cease and desist from future violations, was censured, and was ordered to pay disgorgement of $400,000, prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty of $6.5 million.  Finra fined the firm $6 million.

Under TD Securities deferred agreement with the DOJ, the firm will pay the maximum criminal fine in connection with the offense (about $9.4 million) and will ensure that victims of the offense are made whole through a claims administration process (about $4.7 million in victim compensation), of which $400,000 will be credited by disgorgement to the SEC, DOJ said.