SFO charges ex-Barclays and Deutsche employees over interest rate rigging

Ten former employees at Deutsche Bank and Barclays are to be charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in relation to allegations they plotted to fix benchmark euro interest rates. The defendants will appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates Court on January 11.

Alongside Bermingham, the other former Barclays employees to be charged are Carlo Palombo, Philippe Moryoussef and Sisse Bohart. However, it was unable to confirm whether the four remaining Deutsche defendants still work for the company.

The investigation into possible manipulation of the benchmark rate used to price euro-denominated loans and credits has been running since 2012 at the SFO, nearly parallel with that into the rigging of the Libor rate.

Euribor is a benchmark compiled by a few of the biggest banks in the world, which submit an interest rate each day representing the cost of lending to another big bank.

Former Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bittar was sacked in 2011 for allegedly trying to manipulate Euribor.

“It emerged today that Mr. Hauschild will be charged with involvement in the manipulation of Euribor”.

A lawyer for Kai-Uwe Kappauf declined to comment. Others include Deutsche Bank, which was fined £227m by the Financial Conduct Authority in April for Libor misconduct. At his own trial over the summer, Mr. Hayes was convicted of conspiring with others to manipulate Libor to make money for himself and his employers. He was sentenced to 14 years in a British jail in August.

Since then, 10 other major financial institutions have been fined in Europe and the United States for their role in the scandal, including UBS, Lloyds, JPMorgan, Citigroup and ICAP. As part of that deal, its London-based subsidiary pleaded guilty to criminal wire fraud and the parent group entered a deferred prosecution agreement to suspend criminal charges.