HSBC executive pleads not guilty to US charges in forex-related scheme

Eduardo Munoz | Reuters

Mark Johnson, HSBC's global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, exits the Brooklyn federal court in New York July 20, 2016.

A senior HSBC executive pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he participated in a fraudulent scheme to front-run a $3.5 billion currency transaction by one of the bank's clients.

The plea on wire fraud and conspiracy charges by Mark Johnson, a British citizen who at the time of his arrest last month was HSBC's global head of foreign exchange cash trading, was entered by his lawyer in the federal court in Brooklyn.

Johnson and Stuart Scott, HSBC's former head of cash trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, are believed to be the first people to face U.S. criminal charges arising from a probe of foreign-exchange rigging at banks.