A Wellington man accused of trying to manipulate international banking rates will soon learn his fate, with a London jury beginning to deliberate their verdicts in his case.
British ex-pat Darrell Read is accused of conspiring with two colleagues at London-based broking house ICAP, to make false submissions for Yen Libor for the benefit of one of their clients.
The trial of Read and his co-accused began in October and wrapped up last week with a judge telling the jury not to convict the six former brokers unless evidence showed they played a "significant" part in an alleged plot to help rig benchmark interest rates.
That jury is now considering its verdicts.
Libor -- or the London interbank offered rate -- is set every morning and is a key part of the relationship between borrowers and lenders around the world.
Although Read moved to New Zealand in 2007, he continued working for ICAP -- which in 2013 was fined US$87 million by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic for its role in the
Libor scandal, which has seen numerous financial institutions penalised.
The alleged offending by Read and his co-accused is said to have taken place between August 2006 and September 2010 while one of their clients, Tom Hayes, worked at both UBS in Japan and then at Citigroup.