Libor Criminal Probe in U.K. Starts as U.S. Readies Indictments

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to file charges this fall against traders from several banks in the global probe of interest rate-rigging. Meanwhile, U.K. prosecutors haven’t even decided whether they have a case.

Bloomberg reports that the U.K. Serious Fraud Office opened a criminal investigation this month after Barclays was fined a record $450m by U.K. and U.S. authorities. Politicians including U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, called for a criminal probe, and the agency was told it would be given a budget to take on the case.

The SFO had declined to get involved in the investigation for more than a year, despite briefings with the U.K. Financial Services Authority and a compilation of findings from U.S. enforcement agents. The U.S. evidence was provided as early as late last year, according to a person familiar with the case who wasn’t authorized to discuss it.

'It’s partly the difference in culture', said Andrew Haynes, a law professor at the University of Wolverhampton in England. 'In America, economic crime is something that’s regarded as desperately serious. In this country it is regarded as a problem, but there’s sometimes a slothful response'.

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Libor Criminal Probe in U.K. Starts as U.S. Readies Indictments