British national daily newspaper the Guardian is reporting late this Friday afternoon that the UK’s top fraud prosecutor has arrested a former City trader in relation to its criminal investigation into whether individual traders rigged the $5.3tn-a-day FX market.
The Serious Fraud Office confirmed that it had arrested a man in Billericay, Essex, today with the help of the City of London Police. It declined to give any more details, or comment on whether the arrest was related to its forex probe. Criminal investigations, including that of the SFO, are ongoing.
Six banks – Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS – paid a total of $4.3bn last month to US, UK and Swiss authorities to settle allegations that their failure to prevent traders from attempting to rig Forex markets. The arrest is not linked to former traders who were members of a chat room dubbed “the cartel”, according to people familiar with the situation.