HSBC the bank known for being charged with enabling Latin American drug cartels to launder money, found one of its executives charged for insider trading Tuesday night. Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange trading as HSBC, was detained at JFK airport attempting to board a transatlantic flight to London. The complaint accuses Johnson of "defrauding client", and “corruptly manipulated the foreign exchange market to benefit themselves and their bank”.

In particular, Johsnon and his colleague Stuart Scott, who was also charged, made a $3mn profit by fraudulent trading in front of clients market buy orders, and then charging fees for their "work". They would essentially instantly profit from a price spike on their trades from client orders pushing the price up. Meanwhile Bitcoin regularly sees insider trading and the economic health that follows.