Former UBS trader challenges US case over Libor scheme

New York

A LAWYER for a former UBS AG trader charged with engaging in a fraud conspiracy following a US investigation of Libor rate manipulation on Monday urged a New York federal judge to dismiss the case. An attorney for Roger Darin, a Swiss citizen who has not appeared in court to face the charges, argued that Darin's alleged conduct occurred overseas and had little to no connection to the US.

In the first public showdown stemming from the government's broad probe of alleged manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, Bruce Baird, Darin's lawyer, argued his client could not have expected to face charges from the US Justice Department just because the yen Libor rate was published globally. "Even DOJ will agree they can't charge anyone anywhere in the world for what they consider to be a crime," he told US magistrate judge James Francis.