Bank of America Investigated for Front Running

Reuters is Reporting:

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have both held investigations into whether Bank of America (BAC) engaged in improper trading by doing its own futures trades ahead of executing large orders for clients, according to a regulatory filing.
The June 2013 disclosure, which Reuters recently reviewed on a website run by the securities industry regulator FINRA, sheds light on the basis for a warning by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on January 8.
The warning, in the form of an intelligence bulletin to regulators and security officers at financial services firms, said that the FBI suspected swaps traders at an unnamed U.S. bank and an unnamed Canadian bank may have been involved in market manipulation and front running of orders from U.S. government-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC).
Reuters has since learned that Bank of America’s trading practices regarding Fannie and Freddie are the subject of probes, and that the investigations are ongoing.
Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin declined comment when asked abut the investigations.
The disclosure on the FINRA site doesn’t specifically accuse Bank of America of any wrongdoing.
It says: “We understand that the (U.S. Attorney’s Office) is investigating whether it was proper for the swaps desk to execute futures trades prior to the desk’s execution of block future trades on behalf of counterparties.”