Libor Crime Probe In U.K. Starts As U.S. Readies Indictments

[kpete]

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 haven’t 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 wasn’t authorized to discuss it.

“It’s partly the difference in culture,” said Andrew Haynes, a law professor at the University of Wolverhampton in England. “In America, economic crime is something that’s regarded as desperately serious. In this country it is regarded as a problem, but there’s 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]

1. It will be interesting what and who crawls out of the swamp!

[midnight]

2. From what I just read it does not seem as though this problem/crime will do more than fine the big

boys and lock up the little boys...

[dipsydoodle]

3. There are limits to what can be done in the US.

To understand why search f-cubed litigation.

[drm604]

4. F-cubed litigation appears to involve civil suits,

but the article in the OP is talking about criminal investigations. I'm not sure that one affects the other.

[dipsydoodle]

5. There may be an interaction

aside from which its likely that extraditions may come into play too.

[drm604]

7. How would civil suits affect extraditions?

[dipsydoodle]

8. No

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]

6. Insight - At least three banks seen central to Libor rigging

(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