Former Rabobank Traders Seek to Have US Libor Convictions Overturned

Probes into whether banks have manipulated Libor have led to over $9 billion in global settlements to date, with cases against financial institutions and various people in the US and UK. Barclays Bank, for example, recently , as reported by Finance Magnates. 

This week, a US appeals court questioned whether two former Rabobank traders’ rights were violated in what became the first case by US Department of Justice to go to trial following a number of global probes into the manipulation of Libor, according to a Reuters report.

A US court deliberated over whether to overturn the 2015 convictions of Anthony Allen and Anthony Conti, two former British traders at the Dutch bank.

The traders said that their case became tainted after Paul Robson, an ex-Rabobank trader turned cooperating witness, reviewed testimony that a UK regulator urged Allen and Conti to give in a related probe.

Allen’s lawyer said that may have influenced information provided by Robson to US authorities or at trial, causing their statements to be used against them in violation of the US Constitution.

The judge questioned how the court could be sure that this did not happen, since no record exists of what Robson would have said in connection with any wrongdoings.

He commented: “He may have actually seen it, but we have a record where he did not actually testify to it until after he had been exposed to the immunized testimony.”

Prosecutors reportedly took steps to ensure that the case did not become tainted although it was acknowledged in court that such caution was unnecessary since a foreign government obtained the testimony.

Libor, the London interbank offered rate, underpins trillions of dollars of financial products and is based on what banks believe they would pay if they borrowed from other banks.

Allen, Rabobank’s former global head of liquidity and finance, and Conti, a former senior trader, were indicted a year after Rabobank in 2013 reached a $1 billion deal to resolve US and European probes.

A jury convicted them on conspiracy and wire fraud charges in 2015 for participating in a scheme to rig the US dollar and yen Libor rates. They were sentenced to two years and one year in prison, respectively.