NEW YORK: In the coming weeks U.S. prosecutors will travel to London to interview traders about currency market operation, the latest sign that the system are closer to filing criminal charges stalking from the long running probe.
The U.S. Department Officials of Justice will interview current or previous workers at HSBC Holdings plc, among other banks, people familiar with the matter.
For more the plans to interview traders from HSBC do not essentially specify that prosecutors will file criminal charges against the bank or its employees, noting it is common for prosecutors to speak to witnesses in any criminal inquiry.
JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, UBS AG, and others have disclosed that they are under criminal inquiry in the foreign exchange probe. The systems have given banks under investigation until mid December to turn over related information.
U.S. plans the interviews come soon after Swiss, British, and U.S. civil authorities fined those banks and others $4.3 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to operate the largely tolerant $5-trillion a day foreign exchange market. The fines brought total penalties for benchmark operation to more than $10 billion over two years.
Prosecutors are also looking at whether traders mislead customers. The Justice Department responsibility is a broad probe into whether banks have been join together to move currency rates and boost their profits in trading, violating fraud or antitrust laws.
