In an exclusive report Zero Hedge yesterday presented [6]the connection between the 16 BBA member banks, and something far more sinister: the sleepy, quiet (just as they want it) universe of Swiss hedge funds and private banks. One of our key focuses was on a gentleman named Michael Zrihen. We said: "So allegedly Zrihen, who now works in Geneva (keep a note of this), manipulated Libor at CA, and is now at Lombard Odier - "Geneva's oldest firm of private bankers and one of the largest in Switzerland and Europe." There is no news on whether Zrihen has been let go by Lombard Odier. Yet." We now have news. As of moments ago:
- LOMBARD ODIER SAYS MICHAEL ZRIHEN `NO LONGER TRADING'
- LOMBARD ODIER SAYS ZRIHEN JOINED THE FIRM IN DEC 2010
- LOMBARD ODIER SAYS HAS NO ROLE IN EURIBOR, LIBOR SUBMISSIONS
As a reminder, this is just the tip of the Swiss Liebor rabbit hole. Many more hedge funds will be implicated.
And here is Reuters' take [7]:
Lombard Odier Investment Managers, the wealth management arm of the Swiss private bank said on Thursday it was actively investigating press reports linking portfolio manager Mickaël Zrihen with the ongoing Libor probe.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that Zrihen had been linked with a Barclays trader under scrutiny for the attempted manipulation of the region's benchmark interest rate during a period between 2005 and 2007 whilst he worked at French Bank Credit Agricole.
He is no longer trading pending the investigation.
Calls to Zrihen, who joined Lombard Odier in December 2010 as a member of the fixed income portfolio management team, were not picked up.
Lombard said they had not been contacted by regulators but have now reached out to them in order to learn more.
Lombard Odier, a private bank focused on wealth management for private and institutional clients, has never had any role in setting LIBOR or EURIBOR rates, it said in a statement.
It appears ZH is now "the press"
To summarize: before [6](as in 12 hours ago):
and After [6]:
