Former employees of Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Societe Generale are to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London today charged with conspiracy to rig Euribor.
Colin Bermingham, Sisse Bohart, Philippe Moryoussef and Carlo Palombo are all former Barclays traders and face charges of deliberately manipulating the international benchmark.
They will join former Deutsche Bank traders Christian Bittar, Ardalan Gharagozlou, Andreas Hauschild, Kai-Uwe Kappauf, Achim Kraemer and Joerg Vogt as well as ex-SocGen trader Stephane Esper.
The case follows the prosecution of ex-UBS and Citi trader Tom Hayes who was jailed for 14 years in August after being found guilty of rigging Libor. His sentence was later cut to 11 years.
In November, the aforementioned Deutsche Bank and Barclays staff were charged by the UK Serious Fraud Office with conspiracy to defraud in relation to Euribor.
The benchmark is used by global banks to set interest rates of the cost of lending to other banks and to price loans on products such as mortgages.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has already made a series of fines in relation to Libor and Euribor rigging.
In April 2015, it fined Deutsche Bank £227 million, in July 2014, it fined Lloyds Banking Group £105m and in June 2012, it fined Barclays £59.5m. The FCA’s predecessor, the Financial Services Authority, fined UBS £160m in relation to Libor and Euribor manipulation at the end of 2012.