Bank Trader Jailed For Rate Fixing

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33763628

in his defence (as reported on the 6 o clock news) he claimed he was innocent because rate fixing was so widespread, and felt he was being made an example of.

"everyone else is doing it". legitimate defence?

[Svejk]

Don't think so. Several of his fellow thieves will be joining him shortly, so he wont feel so hard done by.

[-Talbot-]

No, not a defence.


Justice Cooke said Hayes was the "centre and hub" of the manipulation.


Get the parts surrounding the 'hub' behind bars too.

[bazwillrun]

""everyone else is doing it"

maybe not everyone but a very high percentage...i used to work for Chase Manhattan years ago in FX trading and then it was about as crooked as you can get..if i were him and I imagine he has, Id be giving plod a nice list of names of others involved...

[delboy3]

Lots of drivers break the speed limit, but only a tiny few get caught...

[mikey4444]

Well, he is almost certainly correct, although it doesn't let him off. His managers must have known what was going on and its disappointing that they weren't in the dock alongside him.

[douglas9401]

Of course he's being made an example of. He's just a jumped up little spiv, his illustrious bosses must be protected.

The sentence does seem excessive when compared to those doled out for crimes of violence, maybe time for politicians and learned judiciary to get their heads together and find sensible levels of punishment.

[agchristie]

11 others to face a similar charge I understand and 1 has pleaded 'guilty'

Right, time for a Mars Bar.....

[sevenOP]

"Hayes was also quick to remind the court that the practice of gaming the submissions to benefit trading books was so ubiquitous as to be enshrined in an official LIBOR rigging guide called "Guide to Publishing Libor Rates" that was distributed to UBS employees.
... In the end, it appears that the public needed a head (not literally we hope), and because prosecuting senior executives for such things is absolutely out of the question even when, as we saw last week with Anshu Jain, they were not only supportive of the practice but in fact physically moved desks around to facilitate it, Hayes will be the fall guy. "

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-03/libor-scapegoat-found-guilty-london-jury

"During the past three years Barclays Bank, JP Morgan, Swiss bank UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank have all been fined by financial regulators for this practice, which is seen as market manipulation and corrosive to trust in the financial markets." BBC News.guide@limitedhangout