Although it now appears that the logos of several large US banks are set to plead guilty [8] to rigging FX markets, we’re still fairly certain that the post-crisis policy of never sending any actual people to jail for their role in rigging every single market and fixing every single fix on the face of the planet will persist.
As unfortunate as that is, what’s worse is the fact that many of the traders involved in the egregious manipulation of the world’s benchmark rates not only escaped without prison time and with their accumulated fortunes largely intact, but in fact found lucrative employment opportunities at places like BlueCrest Capital Management, where LIBORgate participant Christian Bittar ended up following his dismissal [9] from Deutsche Bank.
Of course rate-rigging derivatives traders need not necessarily flee to the buyside should they find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to take one for the team and admit their complicity in seeking to game the market, because as Bloomberg reported earlier today, not only can you remain employed at the firm from which you operated when you were engaged in illegal collusion, you can in fact get promoted.
Via Bloomberg:
Mark Dearlove, a Barclays Plc executive who was involved in the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, was named as the U.K. lender’s head of markets for Asia-Pacific.
The banker will relocate to Tokyo from London, replacing Conor Brown, who’s taking a sabbatical, the company said in a memo confirmed by Hong Kong spokesman Allister Fowler.
Dearlove, an almost 20-year veteran of Barclays, will be responsible for the firm’s equities, credit and so-called macro unit, which comprises currencies, commodities and rates in the region. He was most recently head of treasury execution services, the memo said.
The banker accepted that he was involved in manipulating Libor, a U.K. judge said at a court hearing in January 2014, citing Dearlove’s witness statement.
Former Barclays Chief Operating Officer Jerry Del Missier told lawmakers in July 2012 that he instructed Dearlove to submit artificially low rates, after being instructed to do so by former Chief Executive Officer Robert Diamond. Del Missier and Diamond both resigned at the height of the Libor scandal.
Dearlove will begin his transition to the new role on June 1, while Brown is expected to return to the bank in 2016, according to the memo. Dearlove will join Barclays’ Asia Pacific executive committee and markets executive committee with immediate effect.
Here's more on Mark, again via Bloomberg [10] (from January 2014):
Today’s witness statement, which won’t be made public until a trial, isn’t the first time Dearlove’s role in the submission of Libor rates was discussed in court documents in the case.
Dearlove told another executive, Jonathan Stone, he’d received complaints about the bank’s submissions from an employee of JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to a December 2007 transcript released by the court in October.
He told Stone the bank’s submissions were “all wrong” and wanted to escalate the complaint, according to the transcript.
Dearlove was investigated by Barclays over his conduct and received a written warning from the bank in October 2012, Guardian Care Homes said in court documents today.
Dearlove reported his concerns about Libor to compliance officers, the head of the legal department and other senior management, the documents released today show.
Naturally we wanted to hear more about Dearlove's new position at Barclays, expecially given the fact that he'll be overseeing the bank's Asia-Pac rates unit, but unfortunately when we clicked through to the Bloomberg article this is what we found:
[11]
Fortunately, WSJ [12] has more:
Mr. Dearlove was one of the Barclays executives involved in the investigation into the bank’s role in the Libor rate-rigging scandal. It was Mr. Dearlove, who was then head of Barclays’ money market desk, who received instructions from bank management to send in a lower, false submission as part of the Libor setting process, according to U.K. parliamentary hearings. Mr. Dearlove could not be reached for comment.
Barclays in July 2012 settled $450 million of penalties with the U.S. and U.K. regulators for “significant failings” related to Libor and its European equivalent Euribor.
The U.K. bank said in a statement Wednesday: “Following the settlements, the issues regarding Mark’s involvement in the Libor matter have been resolved from the Bank’s perspective.”
Well in that case, we suppose everything is fine.
