–
More than 20 international financial institutions and major banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, were drawn into a global investigation into the role they played in manipulating the Libor internal rate of return for many years until 2012.
Libor is one of the world’s most important benchmark interest rates, setting interest rates between banks and setting interest rates on loans of over $ 350,000 billion worldwide. Only tiny adjustments secured large sums in the banks’ favor.
– This is historic
Several were summoned and prosecuted in the United States, before several settlements were reached. The revelations led to the resignation of the top management of Barclays.
Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, reached a $ 2.5 billion settlement with US and UK governments in 2015.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has now confirmed that an alert of almost $ 200 million has been paid for information provided in connection with the investigation.
–
“The alert information led the CFTC to important, direct evidence of illegalities,” the regulatory unit wrote in a statement.
The decision on a payment was made on Thursday.
– This is historic. I do not know of any other reward in the US whistleblower program that has been as high as this, says lawyer Erika Kolton at the law firm Phillips & Cohen, which specializes in this type of case, to Financial Times.
According to the business newspaper, a former employee of Deutsche Bank has been paid the reward of more than NOK 1.6 billion.
– It is an eye-catching reward, says lawyer Paul Pantano at the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
– Warning to Wall Street
It has been a long battle for the whistleblower, who according to the Wall Street Journal worked as a director of Deutsche Bank. The US regulator initially refused to pay a reward to the whistleblower.
– We are very pleased that the CFTC reversed the previous decision and reversed the way they thought. It says a lot about the people there that they do not feel compelled to doubt the wrong decisions with the amounts at stake, says lawyer David Kovel at the law firm Kirby McInerny, who represents the whistleblower, to Wall Street Journal.
In total, more than $ 300 million has been paid to whistleblowers since the scheme was introduced in 2014. Whistleblowers can receive between ten and 30 percent of fines imposed on financial institutions. The previous record was 114 million dollars from the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, SEC.
– This reward sends a powerful message to all scammers in the business world that their own employees can report scams and other crimes to the police. Let this be a warning to anyone on Wall Street who scams to make money. The new whistleblower laws can, and will, lead to you being exposed, says lawyer Stephen Kohn, who is also chairman of the National Whistleblower Center, to the professional website Compliance Week.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We want you to share our cases using a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only take place with written permission or as permitted by law. For additional terms look here.
–
