DOJ Charges Bank Managers in $170 Million Scheme

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would file charges against two French bank managers accused of transmitting false and misleading information about the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), “a global benchmark interest rate to which trillions of dollars of financial transactions are tied.”

According to DOJ’s press release, “Danielle Sindzingre, 54, and Muriel Bescond, 49, both of France, were charged in the Eastern District of New York with one count of conspiring to transmit false reports concerning market information that tends to affect a commodity and four counts of transmitting such false reports. Sindzingre and Bescond were, respectively, the Global Head of Treasury and the Head Treasury Paris at French financial institution Société Générale, S.A.”

The bank managers ran a scheme between May 2010 and October 2011 in which they “knowingly instructed their subordinate employees at Société Générale’s Paris treasury desk to submit inaccurately low LIBOR contributions in an effort to make it appear that Société Générale was able to borrow money at more favorable rates than it actually was.”

The accused conducted this activity while allegedly having full knowledge that the actual rates were higher than those it was submitting. As a result, “on numerous occasions, the false information submitted at the direction of Sindzingre and Bescond altered the day’s final U.S. Dollar LIBOR calculation, thus affecting all financial transactions tied to U.S. Dollar LIBOR on that day.”

In total, it is estimated that the defendants’ misconduct caused over $170 million in harm to the global financial markets, according to the indictment.