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An Ex-Con's Advice To A Libor Rigger
Earlier this week, something strange happened.
A real person - or at least he looks real - was found guilty by a jury of conspiring to manipulate LIBOR.
Then, something even stranger took place.
This real person - Tom Hayes, or "Rain Man" as he was affectionately known in rate-rigging circles - was sentenced to 14 years in jail for his role as the supposed "connective tissue" that held the global fix fixing infrastructure together.

The reason this is so out of the ordinary is that we’re not used to seeing human beings prosecuted for the various schemes Wall Street perpetrates on a daily basis.
Since the crisis, regulators have been at pains to convince the public they’re serious about cracking down on the conspiratorial culture that’s been proven to pervade nearly every corner of global capital markets. This quest is made exceedingly difficult by the fact that, well, they’re not at all serious, which is why no actual people (and certainly no senior executives) are ever held accountable for anything, leaving bank logos as the only fall "guys".
This was on full display when several Wall Street firms pleaded guilty to FX rigging charges earlier this year. The punishment: fines that represented a mere fraction of the proceeds derived from the crimes themselves.
Having said all of that, occasionally prosecutors must produce a head and unfortunately for Hayes (and Nav Sarao), his will now be proudly displayed to the angry mob as proof that justice has been served. For the Rain Main, "justice" means 14 years in HM Prison Wandsworth, which Bloomberg describes as "a Victorian fortress south of the Thames known for its poor conditions and violent residents."
And while one might well argue that bulge bracket banks are also known for having "poor conditions and violent residents," we suspect Hayes might have a bit of trouble adjusting to his new home. Never fear though, because Prison Consultants and its co-founder Steve Dagworthy are here to help. Here’s more from Bloomberg:
Don’t rush to make friends and don’t get into debt. That’s the advice of an ex-convict for Tom Hayes as he adjusts to life behind bars.
Hayes started a 14-year jail sentence this week after a jury found him guilty of conspiring to rig Libor, the interest-rate benchmark used to value more than $350 trillion of financial contracts.
"In prison, it’s not about making friends," said Steve Dagworthy, an ex-convict and co-founder of Prison Consultants, a London-based agency that gives advice to prospective inmates. "It’s about not making enemies."
Dagworthy set up the firm in 2013 after being convicted of fraud and realizing how little preparation there was for defendants facing prison time.
Hayes joins another recent financial crime casualty at Wandsworth. Magnus Peterson, founder of collapsed hedge fund Weavering Capital (UK) Ltd., is in the first of a 13-year stretch for fraud. And Navinder Singh Sarao, the British trader accused of contributing to the 2010 flash crash, is being held at Wandsworth as he fights extradition to the U.S.
Known as "Wanno," the high-security prison is the largest in the U.K., with more than 1,600 inmates. According to a July report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons, "overcrowding and severe staff shortages" mean almost every service there is insufficient.
"You wake up one morning and think 'I’m in prison,'" said Dagworthy, who hasn’t advised Hayes. "And that’s when it hits you, and you suddenly realize that you are no longer in control of your life."
Since arriving at the prison on Monday night, Hayes will have had his possessions cataloged, fingerprints taken and been fitted out with a standard-form gray tracksuit and bedding. He’ll shortly be moved from the induction wing to a house block, where he’ll meet his cell mate, a man he’ll share an open toilet with every day.
"You have to come to terms with the fact that you’re in this new world and you have to understand the rules of this new world," said Dagworthy.
His advice? "Keep yourself to yourself."
We only hope that regulators have thought about whether it's a good idea to lock Hayes up alongside Nav Sarao because after all, if the charges are to be believed, these two criminal masterminds were together responsible for rigging the most important benchmark rate on the planet and sending stocks on their most harrowing intraday rollercoaster ride in history.
One can only imagine what they might dream up if left alone together in a dark prison to commiserate and plot for more than a decade.
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Please forward to Hilary also.
This is where I'd honestly believe the "I was just following orders" defense.
(I mean supervisors wrote up job reviews, recommended and paid bonuses, no?)
You mean this goat aint 'scaping?
Prison consultants! "Expect to take it up the bung twice daily like clockwork, my boy."
The United States of America is a prison will millions locked up in their own shotgun shacks waiting for the FBI Swat with MRAPs and Jade Helm 15 sociopaths around every corner just waiting to pump-you-up with Government of USA ammo they recently bought in bulk just to frag your ass for being human, motherfuckers.
"Don’t rush to make friends and don’t get into debt. That’s the advice of an ex-convict for MoU as he adjusts to life in Land of Freedom."
Are you referring to the Land of the Indentured into Servitude, and the Home of the Slave, Scooby Dooby Doo?
Ha Ha!
Wanno population: 1,600
Rikers Island population: 9,800
America kicks ass once again.
The US is truly way out ahead when it comes to incarceration!
#1 for sure.
Only for low level fuck-nuts.
The real deal is ANY managerial position in any financial institution OR a political position. You can go nutso and NEVER be charged ever as long as there are no dead bodies. Make $500m, company pays 50m fine, next scam and move on. Politically same thing - unless you are low level - its carte-blanche with bribes and other enrichment schemes (not just the US).
Dont think so - the easiest way to go from middle class to upper class is to be elected to office. Some how, on 150k per year its possible to obtain a net worth well into the millions in just a few years....
Why am I having such a tough time with this . . . in the whole wide world of bullshit, Nav and the Rainman are the bad guys? Really?
Based on the picture, this sociopath should be limited to owning 'squirt-guns'.
There's a big difference between having self esteem and the will to succeed in life, and ~actively- knowingly~ colluding with other sociopaths to defraud others because of the position you hold.
Are you listening, General Obungler?
"Shit on me dick or blood on me knife mate"
Okay, motherfucker, but the blood is gonna be YOURS.
Hmmm.
If only the knowledge of what money is were liberated from oppression then maybe the identification of counterfeiting could become knowledge and the recognition of its criminal establishment made obvious.
This dumbass couldn't even barter for a lighter sentence.
At least the UK won't let him out(?) due to overcrowding.
You have to be an Israeli spy in US to be treated that way.
The 'legal' system has become a weapon used selectively by TPTB - it's not a system of law.
14 years in prison Monday after a jury found him guilty of masterminding the manipulation of a key interest rate, the London Interbank Lending Rate, or Libor.
so when is the fed, ecb, joining him
When Trump is in the White House and he unleashes his Attorney General Trey Gowdy on the Criminals
That's funny. Trump admitted in the debate yesterday that his company went bankrupt several times, not because it was bankrupt, but because the act of declaring bankruptcy is a convenient loophole that screws over all of your creditors. Dude, he's cut from the same cloth as all of the other businessmen.
If anything, Trump would pardon a guy like Tom Hayes.
Not a fan of the Donald, but he is involved in MANY companies. Every real estate deal wil have its own corp with different partners and investors. A few of those have gone tits up.
Cardinal Rule of Govt: Laws for Thee, Not for Me ...
A guy like this is tacitly enouraged by his superiors to push the envelope as far as it takes and he will be treated like a rock star. If he refuses he is deep sixed.
He goes to jail and they go to the TARP Country Club.
Billy, does the dictionary have picture for "Patsy"?
Meanwhile the "blow-hole" Jamie Dimon has crawled back into his cocoon at the Cancer Insitute.
Make NO mistake, Cancer is a terrible disease, and ridding the planet of Jamie Dimon is part of the cure.
You got junked by Derivatits...Blythe
One suspects that after he gets out early for good behavior, there will be something waiting for him. In the Mafia guys routinely go to jail for things they weren't responsible for, yet they'd rather be in jail than rat out their buddies. Their familes are taken care of, and there's something for them when they get out.
Who needs the Mafia when you have bankers?
Bankster patsy suicides: 74
Bankster patsy convictions: 1
Hilarious that the biggest high-security prison in England has less inmates than most county lock-ups in the US.