Barclays, Citicorp, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS Enter Guilty Pleas Stemming from Collusion and Fraud in Foreign Exchange Market; Banks Agree to Pay More Than $5.8 Billion in Fines for Misconduct
GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 20 May 2015
Hausfeld, a global claimants’ firm dedicated to handling complex litigation, announced today that five defendants in In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, 13-cv-7789 (S.D.N.Y.), have agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to plead guilty to violating U.S. law through their conduct in the foreign exchange (“FX”) market. Barclays PLC, Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC pled guilty to violating U.S. antitrust laws. UBS AG pled guilty to wire and mail fraud after the DOJ determined that UBS’s misconduct in the FX market had breached UBS’s prior non-prosecution agreement for LIBOR-related misconduct. The guilty pleas entered today reflect widespread collusion in the FX market over a period of several years.
In addition to the guilty pleas, the banks agreed to pay more than $2.7 billion to the Department of Justice to resolve the DOJ’s FX investigations. The Federal Reserve imposed further fines of more than $1.6 billion on affiliates of the same five banks and a fine of $205 million on Bank of America Corporation for “unsafe and unsound practices.” Barclays will also pay a $1.3 billion fine as part of settlements with the New York Department of Financial Services, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Financial Conduct Authority. Continue reading “Article: Barclays, Citicorp, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS Enter Guilty Pleas Stemming from Collusion and Fraud in Foreign Exchange Market; Banks Agree to Pay More Than $5.8 Billion in Fines for Misconduct”
