LONDON â€" British prosecutors have identified 22 individuals at various banks as potential co-conspirators in a wide-ranging inquiry into the manipulation of a global benchmark interest rate.
The individuals were notified last week by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office that they were being investigated, prosecutors and lawyers for some of the potential co-conspirators said at a court hearing in London on Monday.
The Serious Fraud Office notified the individuals that they had been named in court papers related to criminal cases brought this year against Tom A.W. Hayes, a former Citigroup and UBS trader, and two other former brokers at RP Martin Holdings in London and that the co-conspirators’ names might be released in court as early as Monday.
None of the individuals identified as co-conspirators has been charged criminally and some have yet to be interviewed by the regulator despite volunteering to do so, their lawyers said.
A lawyer for at least one potential co-conspirator said his client only learned about the investigation after receiving the letter last week. Some of those identified as co-conspirators could also face charges in the United States, their lawyers said.
Last week, a High Court justice, Jeremy Cooke, issued a restraining order prohibiting The Wall Street Journal and others from reporting the names of potential co-conspirators after the newspaper posted an article on its Web site on Thursday evening.
British law allows judges to restrict what the media can report about a case if it might prejudice a defendant or potential jurors before a trial.
On Monday, the judge lifted the injunction against The Journal, saying he didn’t believe that any of the co-conspirators would be harmed at this stage because any action against them by the Serious Fraud Office would be some time off.
But Justice Cooke didn’t make the names available publicly and agreed to allow the names to be removed from indictments by prosecutors in the cases against Mr. Hayes and the other two brokers.
The judge also cautioned The Journal against reporting the names again if they were obtained improperly.
On Monday, Mr. Hayes, as well as the two former RP Martin brokers, Terry J. Farr and James A. Gilmour, had been expected to enter not guilty pleas to charges in the matter. That has now been put off until December, at the earliest. A trial of Mr. Hayes is now expected in January 2015.
Mr. Hayes was the first person to be charged criminally in the British inquiry into the rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor,. He is separately facing criminal charges in the United States.
British prosecutors have said in court papers that Mr. Farr and Mr. Gilmour conspired with employees at a number of banks, including Mr. Hayes. All three men remain free on bail.
The British lenders Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Swiss bank UBS have agreed to pay a combined $2.5 billion in fines related to Libor. Last month, British and American authorities fined the British financial firm ICAP a combined $87 million for its role in the Libor manipulation.
The authorities claimed that ICAP employees altered the financial figures used to compile Libor in exchange for promises of meals, cash and a Ferrari. ICAP has said that 10 employees caught up in the investigation have left the firm, including three brokers facing criminal charges.
Citigroup, Deutsche Bank of Germany and other banks also remain under investigation by American and British authorities in the matter.
Julia Werdigier and Mark Scott contributed to this story.
