UK issues arrest warrants as five bankers in court no-show

UK prosecutors have obtained arrest warrants against five bankers who failed to appear to face charges for rigging a key interest-rate benchmark.

The five Euribor traders at Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale have remained in their home countries rather than come to London to face the charges, lawyers for the Serious Fraud Office said at a court in London yesterday.

The six other traders that have been charged in the case attended the hearing.

The extradition process will be a major test for the embattled SFO after it dropped a probe into currency rigging earlier this week and in January lost a trial against six brokers who were accused of conspiring to manipulate the London interbank offered rate.

The UK prosecutor started criminal proceedings against 11 traders who worked at Deutsche, Barclays, and Societe Generale in November for allegedly conspiring to “procure or make submissions” that were false in relation to the euro interbank offered rate between 2005 and 2009.

They were the first to face charges globally in relation to Euribor, the euro counterpart of Libor.

The traders facing arrest include several who worked at Deutsche Bank — Andreas Hauschild, Joerg Vogt, Ardalan Gharagozlou, and Kai-Uwe Kappauf — as well as ex-Societe Generale trader Stephane Esper.

Mr Esper’s Paris lawyer, Francois de Castro, said his client would contest any warrant in France.

“The problem here is that he’s being charged for facts that happened several years ago and he has been deprived of the track record of his time at the bank,” Mr de Castro said.

Sara George, Mr Vogt’s lawyer, declined to comment on the arrest warrants while lawyers for the three others didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.