2 March AtoZForex.com, Lagos – The LIBOR rate manipulation scandal has already resulted in an aggregate of £758.4 million, imposed upon 8 firms by the Financial Market Authority (FCA). Also, two traders -- Lee Stewart and Paul Robson -- have received life time bans from the FCA, with Michael Ross Curtler being the latest trader to be banned in connection to the LIBOR manipulation case.
Michael Ross Curtler is an ex Deutsche Bank AG trader. He has now been banned by the FCA from the UK financial services industry for lacking honesty and integrity, having been convicted for fraud on criminal grounds in the US on 8 October 2015, for his involvement in the LIBOR manipulation scandal.
Potential imprisonment of 30 years
Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said:
'Mr Curtler has admitted engaging in dishonest conduct in making USD LIBOR submissions. Dishonesty must disqualify him from UK financial services. Consequently, he must be prohibited.'
Mr Cutler awaits sentencing by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, with a potential imprisonment sentence of up to 30 years. He could also be hit with a maximum fine of “$1 million or twice any gain or loss to others resulting from his offence. He could also be ordered to pay restitution.”
See also: FCA lifetime ban for LIBOR manipulation
Wrongful acts on USD LIBOR
Michael Cutler joined the Deutsche in 1993, staying there till December 2012. Between 2000 and 2012 Mr Curtler was involve in trading a variety of financial instruments that were tied to USD LIBOR. Within this period, Mr Cutler was sometimes vested with the responsibility of submitting the bank’s LIBOR rates. This rates were supposed to reflect only the rate at which Deutsche perceived it could borrow USDs in the London interbank market.
However, Mr Curtler was discovered to have sometimes received requests from Deutsche traders to alter his USD LIBOR submissions to benefit the trading positions of these bank and these individual traders. Mr Cutler then made adjustments to his submissions, while also sometimes soliciting requests from these traders and changing his USD LIBOR submissions accordingly. The FCA takes such misdeeds very seriously, thus earning Michael Cutler these stiff punishment.
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