Antitrust Division Enters Into First Deferred Prosecution Agreement

In a first for the Department of Justice ("DOJ") Antitrust Division, the Division entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement ("DPA") with a financial institution for its involvement in an alleged LIBOR-rate manipulation scheme. As part of the agreement, the company's Japanese subsidiary agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud in connection with the alleged LIBOR rate-rigging.

The LIBOR Investigation

The Criminal Division and Antitrust Division (collectively, the "Department") alleged that during 2006 to 2010, the company's Yen derivatives traders made efforts to move LIBOR in a direction that benefited their trading positions. According to the government, the derivative traders requested favorable LIBOR Yen-rate submissions from its LIBOR Yen-rate submitter. The DPA attached a two-count criminal information charging one count of wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343) and one count of price-fixing (15 U.S.C. § 1), and required a Japanese subsidiary to plead guilty to one