Four former Barclays bankers who rigged global interest rates ‘like bookmakers trying to nobble a horse in the Grand National’ are jailed for a total of more than 17 years…(Hang ‘Em!!)
Peter Johnson, 61, and Jonathan Mathew, 35, agreed to fix US dollar Libor
Information they submitted affected Libor calculations across all banks
Rigging took place in the lead up to the 2008 financial market crash
By STEPHANIE LINNING
DailyMail.com
7 July 2016
Four former Barclays bankers who rigged global interest rates have been jailed for a total of more than 17 years.
Peter Johnson, 61, and Jonathan Mathew, 35, who were based in London tweaked the bank’s Libor rate in a way that benefited their US co-conspirators, traders Jay Merchant, 45, and Alex Pabon, 38.
The New York traders would tell their London colleagues whether they wanted the Libor rate to move up or down on any given day, ‘tipping the odds in their favour’, the court heard.
Mathew and Johnson then fixed the rate, which is used to set millions of pounds of financial deals, in a bid increase profits for Barclays while causing potentially enormous losses to others dealing with the bank.
Southwark Crown Court heard that the information submitted in London affected the calculation of what the Libor rate should be for all banks to lend money, not just Barclays.
This rigging took place at a time on financial instability and in the build-up to the 2008 financial market crash.
Prosecutor James Hines QC compared the scheme to bookmakers trying to ‘nobble the horse’ or telling the jockey ‘not to try so hard’ ahead of the Grand National.
The Rest…HERE
