Fmr. Rabobank traders get prison in Libor manipulation case

A federal court in New York sentenced two former Rabobank employees to prison for their roles in manipulating the Libor, an estimated interest rate that serves as a benchmark for financial lenders around the world. The Dutch banks’s former finance executive, Anthony Allen, was handed a two-year prison sentence, with trader Anthony Conti being sent to prison for a year. The two British subjects were brought before a jury in New York in November on charges that they participated in a scheme from 2006 to 2011 that benefited Rabobank trades between Japanese Yen and the U.S. Dollar, according to Reuters. They were convicted of conspiracy and wire fraud. The sentences were read by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on Thursday. “You can’t go around as, in my view, Mr. Allen and Mr. Conti did, helping rig one of the most important markets in the world, and not pay the price,” Rakoff said. Sentencing rules typically requires prisoners incarcerated in federal institutions to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. Both Allen, 44, and Conti, 46, are appealing the guilty verdicts. They will remain free on bond for the time being. Investigators in the United States and the United Kingdom have charged 32 people for trying to distort the Libor. Rabobank agreed to pay a settlement to regulators in the U.S. and Europe totaling 774 million euros in October 2013, roughly equivalent to a billion dollars at the time. Criminal proceedings launched independently by Dutch attorney Gerard Spong were thrown out by a court in the Hague last May.