In another indication that the ongoing FX probe is picking up steam, or at least preparing for primetime public PR consumption, the FT reports that US prosecutors are offering immunity deals to junior traders in London. The quo for this particular quid: rat our the senior staff involved in what has previously been reported to be years of currency manipulation (recall “How Wall Street Manipulates Everything: The Infographics”). And continuing the tradition of the DOJ only focusing on European banks, because apparently nobody in the US ever engaged in manipulation of anything, ever, the “US Department of Justice staff have flown to the UK in recent weeks to interview foreign exchange traders, who have been offered partial immunity in exchange for volunteering information about superiors, people familiar with the situation said.”
Previously such a blanket immunity agreement was used by UBS to rat out its peers in the Libor manipulation probe to avoid prosecution. And so piggybacking on bankers’ eagerness to expose their former best friends, regulators are going bank to bank and focusing on those most with the most to lose, and most liable to spill the goods: the junior-most traders.
Such “proffer agreements†allow individuals to give authorities information about crimes with some assurances they will be protected against prosecution, as long as they do not lie.
The move marks another step in the global investigation into collusion and market-rigging in the $5.3tn a day currency market by at least 15 regulators and prosecutors. They are investigating allegations that bank traders and sales staff used chat rooms and other means of communication to share client information and manipulate daily currency benchmarks.
Most authorities initially gave banks free rein to conduct their own probes, prompting the suspension, placing on leave or firing of so far almost three dozen staff at 10 banks and the Bank of England, where one official has been suspended.
One senior lawyer said the DoJ probe was well-advanced. The DoJ declined to comment. Referring to general criminal activity, Leslie Caldwell, its criminal division chief since May, told the FT last week that the authority would be “appropriately aggressive†and seek to bring “timely†cases against financial institutions.
