Ten face charges for rate rigging
THE Serious Fraud Office has charged ten former employees at Barclays at Deutsche Bank for rigging interest rates.
This includes the first woman to face criminal charges over the scandal which has engulfed banks across the world.
It is the culmination of a three year probe by the UK watchdog.
The charges are the first criminal proceedings against individuals accused of manipulating the Euro Interbank Offered Rate, which known as Euribor.
They come after the Chancellor George Osborne said this week that rogue bankers should be treated like shoplifters and thrown into jail.
Euribor is an offshoot of the London Interbank Offered Rate – better known as Libor – which is used to set the cost of trillions of euros of mortgages and investments across Europe.
Four former Barclays employees – all of whom worked in its London offices – have been charged for conspiring to manipulate the rate.
They include Sisse Bohart, a 38year-old Dane. She left the bank at the height of the financial crisis in April 2008 and now lives in Denmark. She had described herself as ‘Lady of Leisure’ on her Linkedin social media profile, before removing the reference late yesterday.
Colin Bermingham is the only Briton charged. He left the bank in May 2012 – the month before Barclays became the first lender to be punished for manipulating Libor, fined £290m by US and UK authorities. Of the six former Deutsche employees charged, two were based in London and the other in Frankfurt. They include a Frenchman and four Germans.
The defendants will be asked to fly from the US, Singapore, Germany and Denmark to make their first appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on January 11, 2016. The SFO has not issued extradition proceedings, meaning attendance at the court hearing is voluntary
It marks the latest twist in a scandal that erupted more than three years ago. A string of banks – including Deutsche and Barclays – have been fined for rigging Libor and Euribor rates, prompting the SFO to launch its criminal probe.
Thirteen individuals have already been charged over the Libor scandal, six of whom were Barclays employees – more than from any other bank. But Tom Hayes, the former UBS and Citigroup trader, is the only person to have been convicted by a jury so far. He was jailed for 14 years in August, and is appealing the verdict. Another former senior banker at a leading British bank has pleaded guilty. But his name, and the identity of the bank he worked for, cannot be made public for legal reasons.
Six former brokers from ICAP, RP Martin and Tullett Prebon are currently on trial at Southwark Crown Court, charged with conspiracy to defraud in respect of manipulating Libor.
Another five former Barclays employees are due to go on trial in January.
David Buik, from broker Panmure Gordon, said: ‘This is a grave new dawn where if you get caught behaving in an improper manner you will be brought to book. I think the sentence for Tom Hayes was ridiculous. But if London is to maintain the moral high ground this is the way it has to be. I fully expect more severe sentences for those found guilty.’