Prospective jurors in LIBOR-rigging case have to explain their debt situation

Maria Nikolova

The DOJ and former Deutsche Bank traders would like to know if the prospective jurors have any debt tied to LIBOR.

As the start of the trial in the LIBOR-manipulation case targeting Matthew Connolly and Gavin Campbell Black, former derivative product traders at Deutsche Bank, gets closer, the parties in the criminal proceedings have to deal with certain formal procedures, including picking jurors.

Documents, filed with the New York Southern District Court on Tuesday, September 4th, indicate that the jurors will face some rather peculiar questions about their financial knowledge and financial situation, in particular about their debt status.

Among the questions that the defendants propose for prospective jurors selection is the following one:

“To the best of your knowledge, have you ever had a loan that had interest rates tied to a benchmark known as LIBOR? If yes, please explain.”

The Government would like to pose a similar question:

“Do any of you have any debt tied to LIBOR? If so, will this affect your ability to be fair and impartial in this case?”

It would be difficult to find a mortgage holder whose debt is not tied to Libor, given that this benchmark rate underpins some $350 trillion of loans. But what is more bizarre is that the jurors are anticipated to have some rather in-depth financial market knowledge about how banks determine the interest rates on their loans. Although a law-compliant bank would include some information about how rates are calculated in an agreement, it remains unclear whether the customer would actually delve deeper into the LIBOR element of his/her deal with a bank.

Furthermore, it appears that jurors would have to know in advance what experts are about to explain during the course of the trial. Thus, for instance, Matthew Connolly has given notice of his intention to present the expert testimony of Matthew A. Evans, whom Mr Connolly offers as an expert in the field of trading data analysis, global financial derivatives markets, trading practices, risk management practices and hedging techniques. Mr Evans is anticipated to explain that Deutsche Bank’s submissions on Relevant Dates were supported by factors that demonstrated the reasonability of each submission on each date.

The Government has also indicated it will use an expert in this case. He is set to provide the jury with a “high-level tutorial on LIBOR and interest-rate derivatives trades that touches only on very basic arithmetic”.

The whole idea of asking jurors questions that imply extensive knowledge about LIBOR and then inviting experts to explain what LIBOR is and how it functions, is the least to say awkward.

The Court and the parties estimate that after a jury is selected, this case may last approximately three weeks. The trial will take place four days per week, Monday to Thursday, from 9:30am to 5:00pm into early October.

Read this next

Digital Assets

BlockDAG Presale Raises $9.9M as Batch 5 Nears Sell-Out Amid Bonk’s Fluctuating Trading Volume & Spell’s Bullish Price

Explore BONK’s trading volume, SPELL’s market shifts, and why BlockDAG’s 10,000 ROI makes it an ideal crypto for savvy investors in 2024.

Digital Assets

Cathie Wood’s sponsored Bitcoin ETF sees historic $200 million inflows

The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), co-sponsored by Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, registered historic inflows exceeding $200 million on Wednesday, signaling a robust appetite among investors for Bitcoin-centric investments.

Digital Assets

Sam Bankman-Fried might see his 25-year sentence halved

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison by a Manhattan court on Thursday. This comes after he was convicted of defrauding customers and investors, with Judge Lewis Kaplan highlighting the potential future risks posed by Bankman-Fried.

Technical Analysis

EURJPY Technical Analysis Report 28 March, 2024

EURJPY currency pair under the bearish pressure after the pair reversed down from the major resistance level 164.25, which also stopped the sharp weekly uptrend at the end of last year,

Digital Assets

BlockDAG’s Presale Hits $9.9M, MultiversX & MINA Price Predictions Show Green

Read about BlockDAG’s promising $10 prediction and insights on MultiversX Price Prediction as MINA’s potential unfolds.

Digital Assets

Rockstar Co-Founder and All-star Line Up Join Advisory Board to Take Metacade into Post Beta Orbit

Metacade, the revolutionary Web3 gaming platform, prepares to streak out of beta with a slew of ground-breaking initiatives that will redefine the way blockchain games are developed.

Retail FX

Prop firm The Funded Trader shuts down, claims relaunch in April

Prop trading firm The Funded Trader has ceased all operations, with claims for a relaunch in the near future.

Digital Assets

Ethereum-Based Tokenized Real Estate Platform USP Launches On Republic

How This Californian Startup Is Revolutionizing Real Estate Investment through Ethereum-Based Tokenization.

Digital Assets

Sui Spikes in Weekly DEX Volume, Joins Top 10 of All Blockchains

March DEX volume on Sui stands at over $2.88B – up more than 49% from February – with decentralized exchange Cetus and wholesale liquidity layer DeepBook leading.

<