Rabobank prosecuted to Libor affair – Financieele Dagblad (Registration)

Reuters

Although Rabobank ‘responsible and criminal “for and because of manipulation of the leading interest rate Libor, the Dutch bank will not be prosecuted. The Court of The Hague on Tuesday dismissed a criminal procedure from customers of the bank. They had asked them to prosecute the bank.

Disappointment

Advocaat Gerard Spong, representing the interests of Rabobank clients, is disappointed. He called the court ruling “a weak bite. He closes civil proceedings against Rabobank does not matter.

The Court finds that a criminal case “now has no added value” because Rabobank worldwide have already been imposed and paid fines. Rabo paid fines totaling € 774 million, of which € 70 million to the Public Prosecutor in the Netherlands. The criminal court may at Rabo not much different than impose a fine, reasons the court.

Object

Some private Rabobank clients keeping employees, their managers, the board of directors and the bank criminally liable for own gain manipulate the key global interest rates under the name of Libor and Euribor. Makes them feel like customers at a disadvantage with interest related financial products.

The complainants therefore made last year objected to the way the Public Ministry has dismissed the case. According to them were committed in the period 2005 to 2010 fraudulent acts by employees of the bank.

The prosecution had with the fiod and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and in cooperation with foreign judicial authorities and financial regulators investigated the manipulations and fined € 70 million from Rabobank

Disclaimer

The prosecution decided against criminal prosecution of bank executives and affected employees who still work at Rabobank. The court ruled that the former directors of Rabobank admittedly “not been alert (…), but measured by the standards of the criminal law can not be established that these drivers deliberately and out of personal gain or seriously have acted negligently.”

Ex-employees involved may be prosecuted abroad for these facts be prosecuted in the Netherlands for the same offense.

Employees still sue

Engaged employees that still work for Rabobank, should be prosecuted according to the court ‘because of the seriousness of the allegations and its standing in unclear relationship imposed internal measures.”

Hun any criminal proceedings should not be based on the accrued case, as the court ruled, because during the international investigation has not always met the requirements of the criminal procedure with regarding the collection of evidence.

A new pure criminal investigation the Court does not conceivable now so essential facts and statements already documented and widely known.

No appeal

Tegen the court’s ruling without appeal. But lawyer Spong considering asking Minister of Justice Ard van der Steur how it is that the Prosecution has made such a mess of it. He wants Van der Steur investigation into the conduct of the prosecution. “How the hell that such criminal blunders have been made that the court now says that a successful criminal law prosecution is no longer possible?

According to Spong, you could say that the bank has its own ‘criminal’. “It can facilitate civil action against the bank,” the counsel.