Re: Barclays caught fiddling!
Executives and former executives of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Barclays are at risk of criminal action, including possible extradition to the United States, in the wake of evidence of their concerted attempts to rig global interest rates, according to senior legal experts.
RBS, Lloyds and HSBC are also facing even larger fines than Barclays’ £290 million fine because of their involvement in the alleged international cartel.
William K Black, an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told the Sunday Herald that anyone who is found to have manipulated Libor or condoned such practices at a senior level in a bank should face criminal prosecution. He suggested UK based directors and staff, such as the former RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin, could be liable for extradition to the US.
Black, a world-leading expert on financial crime said:
“The reports of systematic falsification of Libor reports, if accurate, constitute felonies under US antitrust law that should be prosecuted vigorously, as should the systematic cover up.”
The US Justice Department has confirmed its criminal division is investigating banks other than Barclays. It said:
“The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the manipulation of Libor and Euribor by other financial institutions and individuals is on-going.”
Industry sources said executives from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS are at risk of extradition hearings, since evidence suggests that US dollar Libor was was one of the benchmarks that was manipulated. Seventy percent of the $500 trillion global swaps market is based on US dollar Libor, with American counterparties likely to have been most affected.
Yippee! *skips and dances*
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.ianfraser.org/the-wages-of-sin-bankers-on-the-fiddle/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.ianfraser.org/the-wages-of-s ... he-fiddle/</a>
