(image courtesy of SwitchYourBank.org)
Late-night breaking from Bloomberg:
UBS Group AG said its main unit will plead guilty to fraud in the U.S. for manipulating benchmark interest rates and pay $203 million in fresh fines after the Swiss bank violated an agreement that had allowed it to avoid prosecution.
...
The currency investigation led the U.S. Justice Department to scrap a 2012 non-prosecution agreement with UBS that was designed to settle an earlier probe into the rigging of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. The deal was conditional on the bank not committing further U.S. crimes during the next two years. The foreign exchange probe began less than a year later.
It’s the first time the Justice Department has scrapped a non-prosecution agreement in the banking industry and signals its determination to crack down on repeat offenders.
UBS is the first of five global banks expected to announce settlements Wednesday with U.S. authorities over allegations of manipulating foreign exchange rates, people with knowledge of the discussions have said. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will probably enter pleas related to antitrust violations, the people said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
It appears the greedy banksters at UBS had already been caught, but just couldn't resist pulling one more heist! Bastards all - I only wish this gross infraction cost them more than 1.7 billion dollars. (their total fines to date)
Looking forward to seeing what Citigroup and J.P. Morgan cop to today. And may this be the start of greater justice meted out to the perpetrators of the 2008 crash and other colossal financial crimes.
The LIBOR scandal is considered the biggest scam ever, as its benchmark rate affects 350 trillion dollars in derivatives, from mortgages to student loans, and myriad other financial products.
From wikipedia:
The Libor scandal was a series of fraudulent actions connected to the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) and also the resulting investigation and reaction. The Libor is an average interest rate calculated through submissions of interest rates by major banks in London. The scandal arose when it was discovered that banks were falsely inflating or deflating their rates so as to profit from trades, or to give the impression that they were more creditworthy than they were...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/...
Update 1:
From The Wall Street Journal, Citibank, J.P. Morgan and two other banks also pled guilty and have been collectively fined $5.6 billion:
WASHINGTON—Five global banks agreed to pay more than $5 billion in combined penalties and will plead guilty to criminal charges to resolve a long-running U.S. investigation into whether traders colluded to move foreign-currency rates for their own financial benefit.
Four of the banks, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Barclays PLC, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and Citigroup Inc., will plead guilty to conspiring to manipulate prices in the $500 billion-a-day market for U.S. dollars and euros, authorities said.
The fifth bank, UBS AG, received immunity in the antitrust case, but will pay a fine and plead guilty to manipulating the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, benchmark for violating an earlier accord meant to resolve those allegations of misconduct, bringing the total the five banks agreed to pay to $5.6 billion.
http://www.wsj.com/...