“Slapping handcuffs on these traders has to be the next step … handcuffs, squeeze them, handcuffs, squeeze them and move up the chain….  This is an open and shut case….This is egregious criminal conduct….There’s never been any accountability on Wall Street.  Wall Street’s a high-crime area and the criminals are just let to run free. This would never be tolerated anywhere else in America, and it’s time to end the two sets of laws. We apply [one set of] laws to everybody in this country and we pamper Wall Street.”
~Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets  

I want these guys IN PRISON.  And I agree with Dennis Kelleher in regards to how the FEDS should approach this.  We should treat it like we do the Mafia.  You tell the traders who initiated this behavior that you’ll cut them a break if they give up someone above them and you influence them to give up the highest level they have proof of or you ruin their lives forever.  And the next guy up gives up their boss and so on until you have Jamie Dimon and the rest of the C suite level folks in handcuffs.  You force banks to submit to an entirely new way of doing business as part of the conditions of being guilty.  You can break up these too big to fail banks … you can send the bankers to jail.  The FEDS just need to apply leverage and play hardball.

“More than a handful of traders at different banks are involved.”
~European Banking Regulator

This is the largest scandal in banking history.  Put them in federal pound me in the ass prison.  You can read more about the LIBOR scandal in “It’s time to eat the bankers” and “It’s time to send the bankers to jail“.  You can see an infographic of how LIBOR works HERE.

Reuters has the exclusive on arrests that are said to be happening soon courtesy of two anonymous sources HERE:

Defense lawyers, some of whom represent individuals under suspicion, said prosecutors have indicated they plan to begin making arrests and filing criminal charges in the next few weeks. In long-running financial investigations it is not uncommon for prosecutors to contact defense lawyers for individuals before filing charges to offer them a chance to cooperate or take a plea, these lawyer said.

The prospect of charges and arrests of individuals means that prosecutors are getting a fuller picture of how traders at major banks allegedly sought to influence the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, and other global rates that underpin hundreds of trillions of dollars in assets. The criminal charges would come alongside efforts by regulators to punish major banks with fines, and could show that the alleged activity was not rampant in the banks.

Simon Johnson agrees that this is bigger than just the one bank that has admitted collusion; he games out the potential impact on the industry HERE:

Three American banks take part in Libor panels today – and apparently also during the period in question. (I have asked the British Bankers’ Association to confirm this and other details; they indicated a willingness to help but were not able to respond by my deadline – I will report on their information in a future column.) Bank of America is a member of the United States dollar Libor panel; Citigroup belongs to several of the larger Libor panels (including the United States dollar, the British pound and euro); and JPMorgan Chase is present on 9 of the 10 Libor panels.

This could even become a “tobacco moment,” in which an industry is forced to acknowledge its practices have been harmful – and enters into a long-term agreement that changes those practices and provides ongoing financial compensation. Certainly attorneys general from states that have been damaged will be thinking along these lines.

The video below is of Preet Bharara – the U.S. Attorney covering the Southern District of New York i.e. Manhattan i.e. Wall Street.  He was listed as one of the top 100 most influential men in the world for 2012 by TIME and has a record of 65 – 0 in insider trading cases since he won a unanimous confirmation in the Senate in 2009; read more about that HERE.  This is one of the guys who is going to be actively involved in beating up Wall Street in this case.  It’s actually pretty funny … and then it gets serious.

“I Just Want To Apologize In Advance That I Don’t Have Enough Subpoenas For All Of You…”
~Preet Bharara 

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