SFO charges former Deutsche Bank trader over Euribor manipulation
The Serious Fraud Office has charged Andreas Hauschild, a former trader at Deutsche Bank, with conspiracy to defraud as part of an investigation into the manipulation of the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor).
Hauschild was extradited to the UK after being arrested in Italy in August, and appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court yesterday, the SFO said. The next hearing is set to take place on Wednesday, at Southwark Crown court.
Italian authorities ruled that Hauschild could be extradited earlier this month, after his trip there activated a European Arrest Warrant obtained by the SFO. He had previously been charged in the UK alongside 10 other traders in 2015, but swerved a British trial after Germany rejected a request for his extradition.
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Hauschild, who left Deutsche Bank in 2006 to become Commerzbank’s global head of risk, would have been safe from arrest had he remained in Germany.
His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to reports in the Times and Bloomberg, Hauschild has been on leave from Commerzbank since 2016 while studying for an MBA. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment.
The SFO has accused traders of manipulating the interest rate benchmark which underpins securities worth trillions of dollars by working together to fix the Euribor rate.
Four German traders including Hauschild escaped prosecution in a UK Euribor trial held earlier this year after officials blocked requests to send them to London. A Frankfurt court ruled that the manipulations, alleged to have taken place between 2005 and 2009, were too old to warrant prosecution.
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The SFO has been pursuing allegations of rigging related to Euribor and its London equivalent, Libor, since 2012.