Neil Phillips, co-founder of hedge fund firm Glen Point Capital, has been sentenced to probation instead of a two-year prison sentence for manipulating an exchange rate, partly because the victim was Morgan Stanley, according to a report by Bloomberg.
US District Judge Lewis Liman sentenced Phillips, 53, to a two-year probation sentence, explaining that the involved parties were sophisticated participants in the unregulated foreign exchange market who understood the risks.
Phillips was also fined $1m, the maximum under the statute, but avoided jail due to his sole custody of two children and the one month he had already served in a Spanish jail following his arrest in 2022.
Liman noted that Morgan Stanley could have taken measures to protect against its risk from the option and did not request restitution from Phillips, describing the bank as “hardly the kind of unsuspecting victim” on whose behalf the government usually brings charges.
Phillips was convicted in October of directing $700m in trades to manipulate the South African rand to 12.50 against the US dollar.
The case is US v. Phillips, 22-cr-138, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
