Classifieds » Arts & Culture » Appearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court for the first day c
Tom Hayes is not an impressive-looking guy, all things considered. Though only 35 he has a tired face, no doubt the result of the stress he’s been under. Appearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court for the first day cheap fifa coins of his trial, he sported an open-collar shirt under a dark sweater and rumpled khaki slacks. Nothing special.
His unprepossessing appearance adds to the banality of the corrupt world he reflects. Hayes is the first of a string of bankers accused of working to fix the rate at which banks lent each other money, known as the Libor rate. Some $350 trillion worth of loans are pegged to Libor.
The sums involved dwarf the relative pittance at the heart of the FIFA scandal. The worst offenders in FIFA are alleged to have taken millions of dollars in bribes. The U.S. Justice Department estimates the entire FIFA scheme at around $150 million. That’s peanuts next to the fines banks have already paid for an array of fixes, scandals and frauds since the 2008 meltdown brought many of them to light.
The Wall Street Journal published a partial list of settlements: $25 billion by five U.S. banks over foreclosure processing abuses; $13 billion by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to settle a host of charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department; $9.3 billion by 13 U.S. banks for homeowners hurt by the foreclosure abuses; $8.5 billion by Bank of America for its mortgage activities.
And those are just the U.S. banks. Britain’s HSBC Holdings PLC agreed to pay a $1.9 billion fine over money-laundering allegations tied to the Mexican drug trade. BNP Paribas of France paid a $9 billion fine for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Credit Suisse paid $2.6 billion for conspiring to aid tax evasion. Add in a host of other fines and it could come to $350 billion.
It’s an appalling record, but thus far has had little apparent impact on banking attitudes. Jamie Dimon, www.utfifas.co the high-profile CEO of J.P. Morgan a key figure in many of the cases complained in January that banks are “under assault,” as if they, not the customers and clients they abused, were the victims.
