Exclusive - Prosecutors, regulators close to making Libor arrests
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rate-rigging scandal.
Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the individuals under suspicion to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent, said two of those sources who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing.
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The prospect of charges and arrests of individuals means that prosecutors are getting a fuller picture of how traders at major banks allegedly sought to influence the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, and other global rates that underpin hundreds of trillions of dollars in assets. The criminal charges would come alongside efforts by regulators to punish major banks with fines, and could show that the alleged activity was not rampant in the banks.
"The individual criminal charges have no impact on the regulatory moves against the banks," said a European source familiar with the matter. "But banks are hoping that at least regulators will see that the scandal was mainly due to individual misbehavior of a gang of traders."
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/22/uk-banking-libor-criminal-idUKBRE86L0CE20120722
2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)It's always just a few bad apples not the whole rigged system, right?
think
(11,641 posts)The term most often refers to the denial of blame in (formal or informal) chains of command, where senior figures assign responsibility to the lower ranks, and records of instructions given do not exist or are inaccessible, meaning independent confirmation of responsibility for the action is nearly impossible. In the case that illegal or otherwise disreputable and unpopular activities become public, high-ranking officials may deny any awareness of such act or any connection to the agents used to carry out such acts. It typically implies forethought, such as intentionally setting up the conditions to plausibly avoid responsibility for one's (future) actions or knowledge....
Full description:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plausible_deniability
valerief
(53,235 posts)Shit dribbles down unlike economics.
russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)They started planning it 50 years ago with pencil and paper.
Obama's dad was in on it.
valerief
(53,235 posts)secondvariety
(1,245 posts)for the the Feds to notify someone prior to being arrested? Or is that reserved for bankers? I would have figured giving suspects time to shred documents and transfer money overseas wouldn't be a good idea.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Last edited Sun Jul 22, 2012, 06:09 PM - Edit history (1)
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)comparing someone who defrauded about $400 million and a homeless man who stole $200. The homeless man felt guilty, and turned it into the police the next day. The executive got something like 2 years jail and 3 years probation. The homeless man got 15 years, all in lockup.
warrprayer
(4,734 posts)lock 'em up!
grantcart
(53,061 posts)Squinch
(50,958 posts)Bonhomme Richard
(9,000 posts)them they might be arrested? Just asking.
Ready4Change
(6,736 posts)Oh! I'm sorry, I meant to say 'Final attempt to get them to turn themselves in?'
My bad.
snot
(10,530 posts)to put them on notice that any destruction of evidence occurring after such notice would constitute prosecutable obstruction of justice?
Still, I'd rather they have gotten warrents, kicked in doors, and confiscated computers and blackberries.
russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)the main three suspects probably have no where to run.
maddezmom
(135,060 posts)avaistheone1
(14,626 posts)election to the presidency. It must all be so easy now with Citizens United.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)To get lawyered up.
joanbarnes
(1,722 posts)I see a:
* strongly worded letter,
*a whitewash Congressional Report where NOBODY was at fault,
...but a non-specific "everybody" must shoulder some of the blame
*extraction of promises not to "ever be bad again" from industry PR Spokespersons,
*some toothless "Historic Reforms" that actually reform NOTHING,
but makes it on "The List"
*Nauseating Bi-Partisan TV appearances of political leaders congratulating each other
and patting themselves on the back for their "heroism" in taking on the Special Interests,
while claiming at the same time that,
"We can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"
and
"This is a step in the right direction."
Meanwhile, Big Business as Usual.
Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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woo me with science
(32,139 posts)The denial needs to stop.
riverbendviewgal
(4,253 posts)not fines
Dj13Francis
(395 posts)Let's start perp walking these ass clowns right into jail. And not country club jails, no... I'm talking don't drop the soap or you'll get an ass stinger type jails.
byeya
(2,842 posts)interest rates; lower than honest interest; higher mortgages; etc. according to Robert Reich. This apparent manipulation of LIBOR
has eroded any residual trust people may have had that banks could be trusted to regulate themselves and is another example showing the "free market" to be now, as it always has been, a hoax on the retail saver and borrower.
I will be interested to see if the penalties approximate the enormity of the alleged crime(s).
DearAbby
(12,461 posts)Banks should be broken up, and heavily regulated. We can't trust them to keep our best interests in mind. They are just tossing out some red meat, to pacify us, then business as usual.
They hope this all goes away.
drm604
(16,230 posts)They may be going after the low hanging fruit in order to get them to turn state's evidence against people higher up the tree.
I have a feeling that Europe, at least, is in dire enough straits that they may actually do something about it this time.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Last edited Sun Jul 22, 2012, 05:11 PM - Edit history (1)
This whole scam runs from the traders who had prior knowledge of libor movements through to banks who lowered the rate to artificially support their balance sheets.
The subject of the OP concerns the former - not necessarily the banks.
On the subject of traders best read this : http://www.businessinsider.com/traders-accused-of-libor-rigging-keep-turning-up-at-swiss-hedge-funds-2012-7
Turbineguy
(37,356 posts)my cufflinks on.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)We need politicians in every country who are not compromised by these Global Entities because as it stands now, it appears they have bought politicians from the US to Greece to Australia and all across the globe. And they too should be arrested as Iceland has done, if they were in collusion in any way with this massive crime against the people.