First FX Trader Convicted in Crackdown Is Freed Pending Appeal
- Currency trader says he didn’t know he was violating U.S. laws
- He’s been in federal prison since his sentencing in April
Mark Johnson, former head of global foreign exchange for HSBC Holdings Plc, arrives at federal court in the Brooklyn borough of New York on April 26, 2018.
Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Former HSBC Holdings Plc currency boss Mark Johnson, the first person convicted in a global crackdown on foreign-exchange rigging, was freed from U.S. custody and allowed to return home to the U.K. as he pursues an appeal.
Johnson, 52, was freed after posting $600,000 cash having served two months in a federal prison in Devens, Massachusetts. At his sentencing in April, the federal judge ordered the banker immediately imprisoned, saying he posed a flight risk.