Libor Crime Probe In U.K. Starts As U.S. Readies Indictments
Source: Bloomberg
Libor Crime Probe In U.K. Starts As U.S. Readies Indictments
By Greg Farrell and Lindsay Fortado - Jul 27, 2012 2:16 AM PT
The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to file charges this fall against traders from several banks in the global probe of interest rate-rigging. Meanwhile, U.K. prosecutors havent even decided whether they have a case.
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office opened a criminal investigation this month after Barclays Plc (BARC) was fined a record 290 million pounds ($450 million) by U.K. and U.S. authorities. Politicians including U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, called for a criminal probe, and the agency was told it would be given a budget to take on the case.
The SFO had declined to get involved in the investigation for more than a year, despite briefings with the U.K. Financial Services Authority and a compilation of findings from U.S. enforcement agents. The U.S. evidence was provided as early as late last year, according to a person familiar with the case who wasnt authorized to discuss it.
Its partly the difference in culture, said Andrew Haynes, a law professor at the University of Wolverhampton in England. In America, economic crime is something thats regarded as desperately serious. In this country it is regarded as a problem, but theres sometimes a slothful response.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-26/libor-criminal-probe-in-u-k-starts-as-u-s-readies-indictments.html
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)midnight
(26,624 posts)boys and lock up the little boys...
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)To understand why search f-cubed litigation.
drm604
(16,230 posts)but the article in the OP is talking about criminal investigations. I'm not sure that one affects the other.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)aside from which its likely that extraditions may come into play too.
drm604
(16,230 posts)I meant extradition of individuals re. criminal cases. That's assuming those involved are not in the US. They seem to have moved around a bit.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)(Reuters) - New details from court documents and sources close to the Libor scandal investigation suggest that groups of traders working at three major European banks were heavily involved in rigging global benchmark interest rates.
Some of those traders, including one who used to work at Barclays Plc in New York, still have senior positions on Wall Street trading desks.
Until now, most of the attention has involved traders at Barclays, which last month reached a $453 million settlement with U.S. and UK authorities for its role in the manipulation of rates. Now, it is becoming clear that traders from at least two other banks - UK-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Switzerland's UBS AG - played a central role.
Between them, the three banks employed more than a dozen traders who sought to influence rates in either dollar, euro or yen rates. Some of the traders who are being probed have worked for several banks under scrutiny, raising the possibility that the rate fixing became more ingrained as traders changed jobs.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/28/uk-banking-libor-traders-idUKBRE86R03620120728