Well, there's one thing of which we can be certain

[giandujakiss]

Traders' Messages Provide Grist for Investigators

Regulators probing the manipulation of key interest rates are zeroing in on a pile of potentially incriminating messages from traders at banks under investigation, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Damning emails and instant messages helped regulators squeeze last week's interest-rate manipulation settlement from Barclays PLC. The sprawling probe of at least 16 other banks and financial institutions includes three criminal and about 10 civil investigations in North America, Europe and Asia, according to regulatory filings and government officials.

Regulators now are sifting through internal communications as they near decisions on whether to file charges against banks for allegedly tampering with several interest rates set by panels of bank representatives.

Some regulators said privately that the $453 million deal by Barclays shows how much leverage investigators have over the banks because of the footprints left by traders. Traders could—and did—profit by influencing interest-rate submissions, the regulators said.

At least 15 traders at different firms are under scrutiny, according to people close to the investigation. Most of the traders have been suspended or fired, the people said.

In the wake of the Barclays mess, some former supervisors at the bank are scrambling to hire criminal-defense lawyers, according to another person close to the matter.

The U.K. Serious Fraud Office has said it will decide this month whether it can bring criminal charges. The Justice Department is plowing ahead with its criminal investigation into traders at Barclays and other banks, according to people close to the agency's investigation.

Not a single top bank officer will be criminally prosecuted in the U.S., and there will be no meaningful regulatory changes here.

(The article is behind a paywall but you can access it by searching the title at Google News, which, hey! is a new trick I have learned.)