British authorities charged 10 bankers Friday with manipulating the Euro Interbank Offered Rate, the first to be charged with rigging Euribor. The Serious Fraud Office issued proceedings against six bankers from Germany's biggest lender Deutsche Bank and four from troubled British bank Barclays. The men were charged with conspiracy to defraud, in connection with the SFO's ongoing investigation into the manipulation of Euribor.
The Deutsche Bank employees are Christian Bittar, Achim Kraemer, Andreas Hauschild, Joerg Vogt, Ardalan Gharagozlou and Kai-Uwe Kappauf. The Barclays staff are Colin Bermingham, Carlo Palombo, Philippe Moryoussef and Sisse Bohart. They are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on January 11.
The SFO said criminal proceedings would be "issued against other individuals in due course". Euribor is the rate at which eurozone banks borrow funds from one another. It is the eurozone equivalent of the London Interbank Offered Rate - the Libor global benchmark that is calculated daily, using estimates from banks of their own interbank rates. Several bankers have already been charged with manipulating Libor. In August, Tom Hayes became the first person to be convicted of rate rigging by a British jury and was sentenced to 14 years in jail. Barclays and Deutsche Bank both declined to comment on Friday's SFO announcement.