HFT Optiver Pays $17 Million to Settle Market-Manipulation Case

(Bloomberg) — High-frequency trading firm Optivers U.S. unit paid $16.75 million to settle seven-year-old lawsuits that alleged the company had manipulated energy futures contracts.

Optiver US LLC, two related companies and three former employees agreed to settle the litigation in July 2014, according to a statement on Wednesday. A U.S. court approved the settlement on June 22.

Three groups of private plaintiffs brought lawsuits against the electronic trading firm in July and August 2008. They alleged that Optiver had manipulated the market for some energy futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange in March 2007.

Optiver did not admit any wrongdoing, but decided that it was better to put this matter behind it through settlement and to move forward, the company said.

The Amsterdam-based company enjoyed a bumper year of trading in 2014 with net profit rising 41 percent to 246.9 million euros ($276 million), according to a separate statement on Thursday.

We are in a growth mode at Optiver, looking to develop across countries, asset classes and strategies, said Paul Hilgers, Optivers group chief executive officer. Emerging markets are of particular interest and in 2014 we chose to leave a few markets, enabling us to focus our efforts instead on those where we see the best opportunities.