Russian c-bank detects market manipulation by Prokhor V.G. and Alpari
From August 3, 2015, to December 25, 2015, Prokhor V.G. and Alpari manipulated the market of common stock of certain companies, such as Rostelecom.
The Central Bank of Russia has just announced that Prokhor Viktor Georgievich and Alpari (Kaliningrad, individual taxpayer number 3904602244) had manipulated the market of certain securities traded on the Moscow Exchange.
The illicit practices were employed from August 3, 2015, to December 25, 2015 and affected the shares of companies such as Rostelecom. The scheme worked the following way: Prokhor V.G. used to acquire a certain package of shares from Alpari and then made orders in the opposite direction with the same amount of shares at a higher price. The time lag between the transactions was minimal and the orders were submitted from the same personal computer.
The regulator notes that during the period in question, Prokhor V.G. and Alpari acted as main counteragents for each other for the share transactions in question. During its investigation, the central bank found that Prokhor V.G. was an authorized representative and beneficiary co-owner of Alpari and was trading on the Moscow Exchange from Alpari’s account and from his own account.
The trades in question resulted in substantial changes in the exchange parameters.
As a result of the trades, Prokhor V.G. obtained a positive financial result at the detriment of Alpari. The central bank notes that these actions could have led to optimization of the tax burden on the company. Information about the actions of Prokhor V.G. and Alpari was sent to the Russian Federal Tax Service.
The parties in the manipulation have violated the Federal Law on illicit use of insider information and market manipulation.
The regulator notes that it took measures following the completion of the investigation but did not elaborate on the nature of these measures.