Christian Bittar, a former Deutsche Bank trader, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate Euribor benchmark interest rates, Bloomberg reported.
Bittar’s plea had been subject to reporting restrictions, but these were lifted on Thursday, March 15, around three weeks before the French trader was due to stand trial alongside five co-defendants at London’s Southwark Crown Court on April 9.
It will be the fifth time the UK’s Serious Fraud Office prosecutes former traders on charges relating to benchmark rate manipulation. Five men have been jailed and eight acquitted to date in a five-year criminal investigation that underscores the complexity of trying white collar crime cases.
Euribor, the euro interbank offered rate, is the Brussels-based equivalent of London-based Libor. Four other men and one woman have pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Euribor between 2005 and 2009.
Full Content: Bloomberg
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