Ex-Rabobank trader waives extradition to deny libor charges

[MANHATTAN] A former Rabobank Group derivative trader waived extradition from the UK and pleaded not guilty in New York to charges he conspired to manipulate Libor, the benchmark for trillions of dollars in transactions worldwide.

Anthony Allen, 43, Rabobank's former global head of liquidity and finance, pleaded not guilty Friday to fraud and conspiracy charges in Manhattan federal court. Allen, of Hertsfordshire, England, was released on US$500,000 bond and allowed to return home while he awaits trial, which was set for Oct 5.

His former Rabobank colleague, Anthony Conti, a former senior trader on the bank's money market desk in London, also plans to waive extradition and face US charges, Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, said in an e-mail.

Allen and Conti are charged with their roles in an alleged scheme to artificially influence the US dollar and yen London interbank offered rates to make money for Rabobank on derivatives tied to the benchmarks.

Allen's not guilty plea came on the same day a U.S. judge rejected arguments by a former UBS Group AG trader that he can't be prosecuted in New York because he's a Swiss resident and citizen whose trades were conducted outside the US.

US Magistrate Judge James Francis said in a ruling Friday that Roger Darin failed to show it would be "arbitrary or fundamentally unfair" to prosecute him under US law.

The ruling may make it easier for US prosecutors to charge people outside the country for trades that were routed through the US or had effects on investors there.

Allen and Conti were among six former employees charged in the government's investigation of Libor manipulation at Amsterdam-based Rabobank. Conti, who also lives in the UK, is scheduled to appear before US District Judge Jed Rakoff on April 13.

Tetsuya Motomura of Tokyo and Paul Thompson of Dalkeith, Australia, are also charged. Paul Robson, a former Rabobank employee who submitted short-term borrowing rates that were used to set Libor, and former derivatives trader Takayuki Yagami each pleaded guilty last year to participating in the scheme.

BLOOMBERG