Four Ex-Deutsche Bank Traders Evade U.K. Euribor Case

(Bloomberg) -- Four traders charged in the U.K. for rigging interest-rate benchmarks at Deutsche Bank AG will escape prosecution after German officials refused requests to send them to London to face trial.

Frankfurt prosecutors decided not to turn the men over almost two years after the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office first sought extradition. The final decision on the former traders was made Wednesday after a court issued rulings that the alleged crimes had taken place too long ago to be tried, said Alexander Badle, a spokesman for the Frankfurt General Prosecutor.

The decision means that only six of 11 traders from Deutsche Bank, Barclays Plc and Societe Generale SA charged with rigging Euribor will go on trial in April. A French court last year decided not to extradite the SocGen trader caught up in the case.

The SFO charged the group in November 2015 with conspiring to “procure or make submissions” to manipulate the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, between 2005 and 2009. The scheme was investigated as part of a wider probe into benchmark rates, the most famous of which was Libor, a counterpart of Euribor.

The SFO obtained European arrest warrants in March 2016 against five of the men who didn’t appear at a London court to face the charges. The German prosecutors made a final decision on three of the traders this week, but had previously ruled out extraditing the fourth man last year.

The SFO declined to comment Friday.

The four men, Andreas H., Joerg V., Ardalan G., and Kai-Uwe K., can’t be fully identified under German law. A lawyer for Joerg V. confirmed the decision and declined to comment further. Lawyers for the other former traders couldn’t be immediately reached to comment.

Employment Case

It’s not the first time that the Deutsche Bank traders have had success in court fights related to alleged Euribor rigging.

Three of the men won their jobs back in 2013, with labor court judges ruling that Deutsche Bank didn’t have processes in place to prevent conflicts of interest when submitting data to calculate benchmarks.

German prosecutors who had looked at the issue dropped their probe in 2016, saying the actions didn’t violate local law at the time they happened. The decision clouded the SFO’s attempt to get hold of the men as such a step needed approval by a German court.

The decision by prosecutors this week, however, doesn’t mean the former traders are free to come and go as they please.

The Frankfurt extradition ruling is valid only inside Germany and doesn’t invalidate the arrest warrants in other European Union countries like Austria, Italy and France. That’s true at least until the U.K. will have left the EU. But even after that, the U.K. could enlist Interpol to arrest the men if they leave Germany.

--With assistance from Suzi Ring

To contact the reporter on this story: Karin Matussek in Berlin at kmatussek@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Paul Armstrong

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