US Department of Justice Offers UK Junior Traders Immunity in FX Probe

Prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice are offering immunity deals to junior traders in London as they continue to investigate the alleged rigging of foreign exchange rates by banks and senior traders, the Financial Times reported, citing sources.

Justice Department staff have flown to Britain in recent weeks to interview foreign exchange traders and offer them partial immunity, or “proffer agreements”, in exchange for information about superiors, the FT said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The deals allow individuals to give authorities information about crimes with some assurances that they will be protected against prosecution, as long as they do not lie.

A senior lawyer said the DOJ probe was “well-advanced”, the FT reported. However, it quoted another lawyer saying that most of the traders the DOJ had approached had so far declined the immunity deals.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment outside of regular business hours.

via Reuters

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza