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Four ex-Deutsche Bank traders evade UK Euribor-rigging charges
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A Deutsche Bank logo is seen in front of the buildings. (Bloomberg/Ralph Orlowski)
F
our traders charged in the U.K. for rigging interest-rate benchmarks at Deutsche Bank AG will escape prosecution after German officials refused requests to send them to London to face trial.
Frankfurt prosecutors decided not to turn the men over almost two years after the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office first sought extradition. The final decision on the former traders was made Wednesday after a court issued rulings that the alleged crimes had taken place too long ago to be tried, said Alexander Badle, a spokesman for the Frankfurt General Prosecutor.
The decision means that only six of 11 traders from Deutsche Bank, Barclays Plc and Societe Generale SA charged with rigging Euribor will go on trial in April. A French court last year decided not to extradite the SocGen trader caught up in the case.
The SFO charged the group in November 2015 with conspiring to “procure or make submissions” to manipulate the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, between 2005 and 2009. The scheme was investigated as part of a wider probe into benchmark rates, the most famous of which was Libor, a counterpart of Euribor.
The SFO obtained European arrest warrants in March 2016 against five of the men who didn’t appear at a London court to face the charges. The German prosecutors made a final decision on three of the traders this week, but had previously ruled out extraditing the fourth man last year.
The SFO declined to comment Friday.
The four men, Andreas H., Joerg V., Ardalan G., and Kai-Uwe K., can’t be fully identified under German law. Lawyers for the former traders couldn’t be immediately reached to comment.
