Libor Arrests (Finally) Coming

Just out from Bloomberg:

• RBS, UBS TRADERS SAID TO FACE ARREST WITHIN MONTH IN LIBOR CASE

Note the word "traders" - not CEOs, not COOs, not General Counsels, not Managers, not Supervisors... Traders. Because remember: it was a scheming 28-year old Frenchman that was the mastermind behind Goldman's CDO fraud for years. Nobody else. Just him. That said, we are looking forward to the latest minimum prison reality TV show: "How Many Cigarettes* For A Bollinger?"

More from BBG:

U.K. prosecutors are poised to arrest former traders and rate setters at UBS AG (UBSN), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and Barclays Plc within a month for questioning over their role in the Libor scandal, a person with knowledge of the probe said.

The arrests will be made by police under the direction of prosecutors at the Serious Fraud Office within the next month, said the person, who declined to be identified because the matter isn’t public. Arrests in the U.K. are made at an early stage of the investigation, allowing police and prosecutors to question people under caution and may not lead to charges.

The SFO has 40 people working on the probe into manipulation of the London interbank bank offered rate, a benchmark for financial products valued at $360 trillion worldwide, and has involved the City of London Police, said David Green, the agency’s director.

“Significant developments” in the case are coming “in the near future,” Green said yesterday in an interview at his office in London without giving further details and declining to comment on any possible arrests.

* Called something quite different in the country with the 1000% debt/GDP.

Comments

[bania]

Fabulous (Fab)!

[GetZeeGold]

Within a month.....they seem almost seem serious.

[malikai]

Let the scapegoating begin, muppets!

[no taste]

Jump, Karl Rove, jump!

http://howstupidare.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-stupid-are-karl-rove-and-friends.html

[Manthong]

Don’t bother me until they hit the Eccles building

[TeamDepends]

Don't talk about this or your maid will slit her own throat after murdering your children that she loved....

[saturn]

Zer0 Hedge readers going to be arrested for reading about the LIBOR scandal!

[redpill]

I was gonna say, in this fucked up world they'll probably arrest those who refused to take part in the manipulation.  Whistle blowers are more dangerous than terrorists obviously, just ask Mr. Assange.

[no taste]

Readers should realize that comments such as "you'll be arrested for reading this" have a chilling effect on free speech.  I've made this remark in jest with friends and regretted it.  Trolls make it on purpose.

Mocking the power structure is a step towards solving the problem.

[Fort]

Mocking the power structure would make sense only if more people understood what is going on. That is a dream however not many know and even less care. Most prefer to laugh until the end. I will not blame them for their choise. To be honest I wish I was born stupid, deaf and dumb. For all the good knowing has brought me.

[Precious]

Arrest the guy stealing date expired burritos at 7-11. Much safer career move.

[Pseudo Anonym]

how true:

"you'll be arrested for reading this"

in the eastern block (russia [ussr aka cccp], east germany [gdr] etc.), apparently,  anybody could be openly a racist, bigot, chauvinist, etc. and still be cool; however, the moment one read some anti-communist pamphlet or, god forbid, joked about or spoke against the communist party, he/she was sentenced to life in gulak. 

soon, in ameerika, life in fema penitentiary for speaking up against hofjuden and joo bankers.

[no taste]

There is another troll tactic.  Attempt to taint a valid concern with a stupid one.  Bonus points for using an insulting term to do it.

A person's religion is not an issue that concerns me or any of my friends.

Karl Rove, you are finished.  Have you found a retirement community yet?

[TeamDepends]

Guilt by association.  Probably all the Wise Latina needs to lock your wise-guy ass up.  And don't worry, you'll get a good tenderizing first.

[aint no fortuna...]

I'll believe they're serious when Jamie's led out in chains by a couple of US Marshalls

[GetZeeGold]

Jump, Karl Rove, jump!

Dude it's over....move on amigo.

[no taste]

I want to see that fat guy splat.

[GetZeeGold]

He'll be fine......not so much for these guys.

• Energizer -

The St. Louis-based company said Thursday that it expects to shed about 1,500 employees. When finished, the restructuring should lead to $200 million in pretax yearly savings, Energizer said. It aims to have most of its restructuring steps finished by the end of September 2014.

• Westinghouse -

Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor responsible for shutting down Anniston’s chemical weapons incinerator, has reduced its workforce by another 50 employees.

• Research in Motion Limited -

Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, laid off about 200 people at its U.S. headquarters in Irving on Wednesday, according to a source close to the company who did not want to be named.

• Lightyear Network Solutions -

More than one dozen employees at a Pikeville company lost their jobs this week. Officials with Lightyear Network Solutions said they are consolidating offices in Louisville and Pikeville to save money.

• Providence Journal -

The Providence Journal Co. laid off 23 full-time workers Wednesday as part of a cost-cutting effort, including 16 members of the Providence Newspaper Guild and 7 non-union employees.

• Hawker Beechcraft -

The company says 240 employees will lose their jobs with the closing of Hawker Beechcraft Services facilities in Little Rock, Ark.; Mesa, Ariz.; and San Antonio, Texas.

• Boeing (30% of their management staff) -

Boeing Co. said Wednesday it plans to employ 30% fewer executives at its Boeing Defense, Space & Security unit by the end of 2012 compared to 2010 levels.

• CVPH Medical Center -

CVPH Medical Center has handed pink slips to 17 employees. The layoffs — nine in management and eight hourly staffers — are part of an effort to “help bolster the hospital’s financial position in 2013 and beyond,” a press release said.

• US Cellular -

The move will result in 980 job cuts at U.S. Cellular, with 640 in the Chicago area, according to a spokeswoman. The cuts are slightly under 12 percent of the approximately 8,400 total employees U.S. Cellular had at the end of the third quarter.

• Momentive Performance Materials -

About 150 workers at Sistersville’s Momentive Performance Materials plant will be temporarily laid off later this month, officials said this week.

• Rocketdyne -

About 100 employees at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, most of whom work in the San Fernando Valley, were laid off Wednesday in response to dwindling government spending on space exploration, the company said. The layoffs were effective immediately, and 75 percent of them came at the facilities on Canoga and De Soto avenues, which employ about 1,100 people. The company has six sites across the Valley.

• Brake Parts -

The leader of an automotive parts plant in Lincoln County has told state officials that there are plans to lay off 75 workers starting in late December…The layoffs are expected to start Dec. 28 and continue in the first quarter of 2013

• Vestas Wind Systems -

Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) is seeking to sell a stake of as much as 20 percent and said it’s reducing headcount by 3,000 to raise the staff cuts by the biggest wind turbine maker to almost a third over two years.

• Husqvarna -

Husqvarna AB (HUSQB), the world’s biggest maker of powered garden tools, plans to cut about 600 jobs in a move that will save 220 million kronor ($33 million) a year by 2014.

• Center for Hospice New York -

The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care plans to temporarily lay off as many as 40 employees next year as it embarks on a major renovation of the inpatient unit at its Cheektowaga campus.

• Bristol-Meyers -

Bristol-Myers Squibb is following up its lackluster third-quarter results with almost 480 layoffs. As Pharmalot reports, the company notified the New Jersey government that it would scale back in Plainsboro, which means the cuts will hit its sales operations.

• OCE North America -

Trumbull printer- and scanning-equipment provider Oce North America, Inc. will lay off 135 workers in three Connecticut communities, including East Hartford, according to its notice with the state Labor Department.

• Darden Restaurants -

The company, which was among those who had received an Obamacare waiver in the past, is looking to limit workers to 28 hours per week. A full time employee that is required to have health insurance (lest the employer pay a fine) works 30 hours per week, as defined by the Obamacare law.

• West Ridge Mine -

In its statement, UtahAmerican Energy blames the Obama administration for instituting policies that will close down “204 American coal-fired power plants by 2014? and for drastically reducing the market for coal.

• United Blood Services Gulf -

United Blood Services Gulf South region, the non-profit blood service provider for much of south Louisiana and Mississippi, will lay off approximately 10 percent of its workforce. It was a hard decision to make according to Susan Begnaud, Regional Center Director for the Gulf South region.

[Joe Davola]

Even after losing, those rich, heartless f**kers at Bain are still trying to kill the wives of good Americans.

[GetZeeGold]

They really are heartless bastards aren't they? Making people work for a living....when they could just live off foodstamps.

[Omen IV]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/business/popular-wrench-fights-a-chinese-rival.html?ref=business so tell me what the problem is?

[El Tuco]

It's all very simple. All you need is around 15 % tariffs on Chinese goods but lets make it 50 % for good measure. All your problems solved. That would level the playing field considering how much subsidizing every industry gets in China from their Government for exporting.

Fuck I wish Mexico would get it's act together. At least Americans can walk across the boarder for work.

[HD]

Yup. Obamacare will is moving America forward...part time.

[LetThemEatRand]

Yeah, it's Obamacare.  That's the problem.  And apparently employers are psychic and have been for decades in predicting that this day would come.

"But from 2000 to 2011 the rate of loss dramatically accelerated, with manufacturing jobs shrinking at a rate nearly six times faster (3.1 percent per year) than the rate in the prior two decades. Manufacturing lost 5.4 million jobs for a decline of 31.4 percent. (Figures 1 and 2) The economy lost 13 times as many manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010 than between 1990 and 2000. On average, 1,276 manufacturing jobs were lost every day for the past 12 years.

[Joe Davola]

I see, still Bush's fault.

[helping_friendl...]

Bush was a nincompoop.

Cheney was the real brains behind all of the dastardly deeds.

It's Cheney's fault; so I will say until the day I die.

[JR]

“WE need death panels. Well, maybe not death panels, exactly, but unless we start allocating health care resources more prudently — rationing, by its proper name — the exploding cost of Medicare will swamp the federal budget.” -- STEVEN RATTNER (a counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration), NY Times, BEYOND OBAMACARE, September 16, 2012

[HD]

Companies are shifting their employees to part time status to avoid the 30-hour health insurance requirement. I did not suggest Obamacare is responsible for massive job loses.

If Obamacare actually brought down health care costs I'd be all for it (I had NO PROBLEM with a public option) - but as it stands, Obamacare  is just a giant gift to the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

[JR]

Incredible, GetZeeGold. And let me add Snakeeyes' warning this month on ZH that "Obama asked Lockheed to delay layoffs of 123k until after the election. So, the 171k NFP bump that Rachel Maddow was cackling about is actually only +48k. But this accounting fabrication will hit after the election."

With this additional warning: “Markets will react BADLY to an Obama win."

The backup story is on Confounded Interest which concludes that: “This is the WORST recovery from a financial crisis since 1882.”

http://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/unemployment-rate-rises-to-7-9/

[MillionDollarBoner_]

I'll see your Energizer...

and raise you a Comet

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/comet-launches-mass-stock-sell-101743621.html

6,600 staff fukt in the butt - just b4 Xmas

Voucher and gift card holders, up to £500 a shot, advised to "get bent" - just b4 Xmas

Management to trouser up to £80 million - it must be Xmas !;o)

[HelluvaEngineer]

Make sure to give them enough time to load all their shit on a private jet and fly to South America or some tiny island in the Pacific.

Edit: crap - just saw the note about Traders only.  Have fun in jail, I guess.

[Whoa Dammit]

The big fish, if ever implicated, will just transfer to NY where their "expertise" is ignored by the DOJ and the SEC.

[BurningFuld]

Are you sure? After all it the "SERIOUS" Fraud affice that is after them as opposed to the "NORMAL" Fraud Office. What a fucking joke.

[Liberty2012]

Lol ;(

[Urban Redneck]

UBS executive management probably just threw a copy of the names of the 10,000 people they screwed over last month into a big hat and randomly picked out a few names to be doubly-sacrificed lambs.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Bank_heads_immoral_behaviour_riles_...

[vast-dom]

these "traders" should talk. go public. incriminate the top brass asap!

[HelluvaEngineer]

That would be the best way to stay out of jail.  Or get suicided.  Could go either way.

[vast-dom]

i wasn't even thinking in order to stay out of jail because that would be to be a rat. i'm thinking more along lines of being clearly thrown under bus by their superiors and hence the right thing to do (in a culture where they only do the wrong things).

[reload]

The SFO (UK`s - `serious fraud office`) are extremely beholden to the political establishment, and hence the banks. They have also proven time and time again to be completely inept at solving anything more complicated than a fake signature on a cheque. Dont get too hopeful about this, they are going to be used to enable a thorogh cover up. For now its just a headline grab to give the impression of intent to mount a serious investigation. If they were serious though, who thinks they would be giving the targets of their investigation a months notice ! joke.

[sgt_doom]

"...it was a scheming 28-year old Frenchman that was the mastermind behind Goldman's CDO fraud for years."

How very true --- secret correspondence was recently found detailing how Fabrice, while still in diapers, was secretly corresponding with Blyth Masters at JPMorgan, explaining in the simplest terms possible -- so she could understand -- how to create those Credit Default Swaps, and variants on the CDO.

Then, other recently unearthed correspondence demonstrations how the prodigious Fabrice, explained to Terry how to set up those B.I.S.T.R.O.s --- that Fab Guy!!!!!

[francis_sawyer]

Plausible deniability bitchez... Inn't dat how it works (or is simply that the whole justice system is as corrupt as banking)?

[Joe Davola]

I'll go with B.

[LongSoupLine]

In other news...

Jon Corzine went for a jog and sauna this morning.

[orangedrinkandchips]

Oooooh Kay.

Right. Sure. Believeable.

who the fuck are they kidding?

[machineh]

So when is Eric Holder -- who has a contempt warrant out for him issued by the House of Representatives -- gonna get cuffed, booked and printed?

[Joe Davola]

The election's over, that contempt warrant gonna go the way of the wind.

[sgt_doom]

Probably the same time that the dood behind that warrant, Darryl Issa, gets jailed for insurance fraud and arson (oopsy, forgot he paid off the insurance company not to turn him in to the insurance commissioner and the coppers!).

[madcows]

Arrests are irrelevant.  It's convictions that matter.  Lock 'em up and throw away the key.

[Sans-culottes]

Time to tar and feather

[fonzannoon]

Cue the Apple has bottomed and is the buy of a lifetime talk...for 15 minutes....

[Quinvarius]

Next up, PM fraud and manipulation arrests? 

[Joe Davola]

You funny, Pete-ah-san.

[falak pema]

AH Kayser SAuzee and usual suspects...trot them out please. 

None of them limps. 

[Troy Ounce]

One month jail in return for a stash of money in Jersey.

Problem sold for:

• Procecutors
• public
• Obama
• BANK Ceo's

Everybody happy!

[Mercury]

No CEOs and no COOs because LIBOR manipulation can't be systemic at a large bank that is both a payer and receiver of LIBOR based payments at any given time.

The bank that benefits in aggregate from manipulating rates is the Fed.

[buzzsaw99]

the derivative tail was wagging the libor dog methinks. ;)

[Mercury]

LIBOR basically tracks Fed Funds so again, there's your manipulation culprit. Like England's former empire LIBOR grew in size and importance more or less by accident. It's a stupid system and an unnecessary bottleneck and it should be abandoned. It's probably to F'd up to change outstanding contracts but it can be replaced with something else for all new deals from here on.

[buzzsaw99]

That it should be changed is plainly evident. As you wrote earlier the banks in question used libor both ways, the scam was in how they reported it. The fraudulent reporting cost them nothing while the derivatives bets would have lost quite a bit if it didn't go their way.

[LawsofPhysics]

What will be the punishment or consequences?  I'll believe it when I fucking see it.  FYI, having your bonus go from 50 million to 25 million is not a real fucking consequence (neiher is being given a job as a politcal bundler).

Strip the these people of all their wealth/assets and put them in public housing in Detriot, anything less, and there is no justice.

[WillyGroper]

>>>Strip the these people of all their wealth/assets and put them in public housing in Detriot

I like the way you think! Law of the jungle.

[Never One Roach]

The Butler did it.

[EscapeKey]

I'm sorry, if they know laws have been broken by SEVERAL individuals, then surely that's sufficient evidence to raid the corporate offices, and capture & go through all email to establish whether this was just "rogue traders" (bullshit), or actually encouraged behavious (obviously).

Oh sorry, we'll just settle for an undisclosed amount and not admit to a thing, and our bought politicians will be happy with that as well (plus some "campaign donation").

[Yen Cross]

 House arrest or Grey Bar Inn Arrest?

[fijisailor]

Hey they can just come to the US.  We have no Serious Fraud Office.

[buzzsaw99]

I see nothing.

Sargent Schultze, Bank CEO

[overmedicatedun...]

did you know more privates get killed in war than generals always made me wonder....it's good to be king

[Dr. Engali]

The only way the appropriate people are going to be held accountable is through the "peoples" court. Not the official bought and paid for court.

[semperfi]

Yet another indicator that the thugs are the law.

[Fred Hayek]

Is there any chance that this is a case of the classic investigative m.o. of going from the outside in? Make these little fish flip on the people above them who rat out the people above them etc etc ?

[ziggy59]

Quick, look over there...

[rehypothecator]

Zero risk of that happening to Corzine any time soon.  

[toomanyfakecons...]

Not with mega-criminals occupying the White House and AG's office.

[Kasperfx]

I hope more bank traders / employees start thinking clear.. CEO's are nothing more then dictators who use their employees as pawns to execute and stand accountable for the ceo's mistakes. Trust assure theirs going to be a lot of pawns thrown to the people in the upcoming years. 

[pods]

Bottle of Bollinger!

[toomanyfakecons...]

Besides being a cool movie, the ending scene of "Boiler Room" is an illustration of what needs to happen... the arrests of financial criminals by the bus load.

[ReactionToClose...]

and when will Corzine be arrested?

Never ..... and our esteemed 'news' media could care less .....

[helping_friendl...]

Never! Those of the Temple never, repeat...NEVER, get charged. The Judge in the Southern District Federal Court is the high priest of the money changers and will never prosecute one of his own.

The Joohs don't consider offenses against the Gentile as crimes. They are expected to stick it to the Goyem at every opportunity so says their Babylonian Talmud.

[thebondfreak]

I can't help but wonder if we'll ever find out how complicit, if not directly suggestive, all the central banks, with the US Fed as lead, were in the Libor manipulations. Because they simply HAD to be.  

[IridiumRebel]

"for questioning over their role in the Libor scandal"

They will get off of the hook. This is for presss release only. This is crap.

[Odin]

I mean at this point why would anyone want to be a trader at one of these Bankster institutions? It's tantamount to being in the front infantry line in a 18th century battle, slowly walking towards musket fire while the officers in the back sip tea and discuss how to further subjugate the pacific rim...

[freewolf7]

Isn' t the strategy with antisocials to simply
pit them against one another?

[tradewithdave]

Must have found another missing laptop in a garbage room... this time in London.  Heck of a job new van Praag.

www.tradewithdave.com

[Benjamin Glutton]

Arrest the Chief Compliance Officers and you get the CEO in no time,imo.

[q99x2]

Arrest them. Arrest all of them.

Movin movin

Keep them doggies rolling

[ebworthen]

Traders dog to be given dry instead of canned food.

Convicted traders moved from Libor to MBS's desk as punishment.

CEO's and other upper-management to bemoan the lack of moral and responsible employees.

Recruiting programs at Ivy League Colleges for the opportunity of a lifetime to make wads of cash defrauding the little people of their meager earnings and savings.

The ghost of Charles Dickens to rattle chains and moan at Eric Holder, who will sleep through it.

[Fort]

Hard to find these days. But here it is at least some good news. I know they won't get what they deserve, but just seeing one of these sob suits in cuffs puts a smile on my face. Where is Corzine by the way?

[Coldfire]

Cigarettes*? I saw what you did there. Faire le pipe, c'est formidable. Expecially in a French prison.

[Bansters-in-my-...]

....................JOKE................................................................................................
Fuck Off bankers.

[IamtheREALmario]

One wonders how many little guys need to take the fall for the big guys before they figure out that they are ALL little guys and take all the risk for the benefit of the criminal bosses.

[Bansters-in-my-...]

It's all a dog and pony show until you read"Charges laid to CEO's in LIBOR scandal"

[Mad Mohel]

zzzzzzzzzz Unless accompanied by executions, pointless. Candy ass euros.

[thewhitelion]

I read your post.  If it was me you kept posting the link for, you can take the weekend off.  Cheers!

[smacker]

Arrests in the U.K. are made at an early stage of the investigation, allowing police and prosecutors to question people under caution and may not lead to charges.

Exactly true. Do NOT assume that because bank traders are to be arrested that it is likely to result in criminal charges. The UK CPS ("Criminal Prosecution Service" aka "Criminal Protection Service") has a long record of blocking criminal charges on spurious grounds against people in the Establishment and those in bed with government, as people in the banks almost certainly were when it came to LIBOR rigging.