U.S. Investigates Currency Trades by Major Banks

[Newsjock]

Source: New York Times

From their desks at some of the world’s biggest banks, traders exchanged a series of instant messages that earned them the nickname “the cartel.”

... If those suspicions are correct, the group of traders shared a mission to alter the price of foreign currencies, the largest and yet least regulated market in the financial world. And ultimately, they flooded the market with trades that potentially raised the cost of currency for clients but aided the banks’ own investments.

Now the instant messages, along with similar activity among other traders, are at the center of an international investigation into banks like Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup, according to recent public disclosures by the banks and interviews with investigators who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The investigators secured the cooperation of at least one trader, a development that has not been previously disclosed.

Although the investigation is at an early stage, authorities are already signaling the likelihood of a legal crackdown. “The manipulation we’ve seen so far may just be the tip of the iceberg,” the United States Attorney General, Eric H. Holder Jr., said in a rare interview discussing an active investigation. “We’ve recognized that this is potentially an extremely consequential investigation.”

Read more: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/u-s-investigates-currency-trades-by-major-banks

[Kelvin Mace]

1. Why do they bother to make these announcements?

They have no intention of actually prosecuting anyone since it would jeopardize their post- Washington careers. Holder and all of the rest know that they have a safe future lined with six and seven figure salaries after they retire from "public service" as long as they keep playing the game.

I guess this is so they can claim they are actually doing something, even though it is all a charade.

[MindMover]

2. Yea, it is such a charade that Holder is getting threatened with impeachment ....

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Please. The impeachment threat

has nothing to do with Wall Street.

The only people Holder has go after to send to jail have been medical marijuana dispensaries, and whistle-blowers.

War criminals, Wall Street fraud, polluters etc, get a pass.

[PSPS]

3. Yes, the old "sue and settle" charade

The way these things go is that charges are brought but then they "agree to settle" with the crooks who give the government their "cut of the take" (i.e., "vigorish,&quot usually pennies on the dollar. Oh, and no jail, natch. And, almost always, "no admission of wrongdoing."

[Kelvin Mace]

9. We have over 3,000 prisoners

in this country serving life without parole for non-violent offenses, but these degenerate spawns of maggot fucks get a pass.

[Demeter]

7. London, however, DOES prosecute

the UK are not amused.

[Kelvin Mace]

10. I am not so sure

Apparently, unless they get permission from Washington, they can't do anything.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-us-blocks-publication-of-chilcots-report-on-how-britain-went-to-war-with-iraq-8937772.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. London tends to drag its heels, compared to the US

Take the LIBOR scandal - which, as its name says, happened entirely in London.

Seven people have been charged over manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, including five in the U.S. Tom Hayes, a former UBS AG and Citigroup Inc. trader who has been at the center of the probe, has been accused in both countries.
...
Two former RP Martin Holdings Ltd. brokers, Terry Farr and James Gilmour, were charged by the SFO one month after Hayes. All three are scheduled to enter pleas in December.

Hayes was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice along with former UBS trader Roger Darin last December, six months before he faced criminal proceedings in Britain. No public attempts have been made by the U.S. to extradite any individuals accused over Libor.

The SFO charged Hayes with conspiring with employees of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM:US), Royal Bank of Scotland Group, HSBC Holdings Plc, Rabobank Groep and Deutsche Bank AG, as well as Tullett Prebon Plc, ICAP and RP Martin Holdings, to manipulate yen Libor rates over a four-year period. Hayes was charged half a year after being interviewed by the SFO.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-11-08/ex-icap-brokers-said-to-face-u-dot-k-dot-prosecutors-in-libor-probe

[hughee99]

13. This announcement makes some people believe they aren't ignoring this sort of stuff.

They just hope people don't pay attention to find out that this sort of announcement was the END of the Justice Department's involvement, not the beginning.

[blkmusclmachine]

4. The DOJ is interested in 1 thing only ~> going after whistleblowers.

[freshwest]

5. If they get the goods, wow. Bet 90% has been erased,

after the money was made, for both legal and illegal reasons...

[valerief]

6. And investigators extort their own "protection" money from the banks.

Cuz that's how the US works. Whoredom.

[Thucydides]

8. Wow, heads are going to roll over this.....

Not! I am sure someone is going to get a BIG slap on the hand for this.