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April 2, 2013

Judge Dismisses Nearly All Claims Against Banks in Libor Scandal 
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A federal judge has dismissed nearly all the claims in lawsuits filed
against major banks for involvement in manipulation of the global
interest rate Libor. The rigging of Libor altered the benchmark for
rates on trillions of dollars in transactions across the globe, meaning
millions of borrowers paid the wrong amount on their loans. Plaintiffs
including the city of Baltimore had filed antitrust and racketeering
claims against firms such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and
Citigroup. But U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed nearly
all the claims, citing technical grounds that the plaintiffs cannot
claim "antitrust injury." The dismissals were issued without prejudice,
meaning they cannot be appealed. A limited number of claims under the
Commodity Exchange Act were however allowed to proceed to trial. A
handful of banks have already paid around $2.5 billion in fines for the
Libor scandal, but have avoided criminal charges and payouts of damages
to the scandal's victims.

 

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