LONDON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- British finance regulators have implicated 22 potential co-conspirators in a probe into Libor manipulation, prosecutors and attorneys said Monday.
While some details of the investigation were revealed in a court hearing Monday, the names of the 22 potential co-conspirators were not released in court, The New York Times reported.
High Court justice Jeremy Cooke allowed the names of the 22 individuals to be stricken from the indictments of former Citigroup and UBS trader Tom Hayes, and former RP Martin Holdings brokers Terry Farr and James Gilmour, who were expected to enter pleas in court Monday on charges of lending rate manipulation.
Entering pleas has been put off until December, however, the Times said.
The Libor lending rate is the London interbank offered rate, which is published as a benchmark rate from which banks base a variety of lending rates. The Libor itself is an average of lending rates banks charge each other for loans, so that small manipulations can escalate into huge outcome differences in the world of finance as rates for trillions of dollars in loans are based on the Libor.
British financial firm ICAP has said 10 of its employees implicated in the Libor investigation have left their jobs at the firm and that three of them are facing criminal charges.
In September, British and U.S. regulators fined ICAP a total of $87 million for its role in Libor manipulation.
Large banks have also paid penalties to have cases of Libor manipulation settled. Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS have settled cases for a combined $2.5 billion, the Times said.
Several other banks, including Citigroup and Deutsche Bank of Germany have been implicated or are under investigation.
On Monday, the courtroom was crowded with barristers in traditional black robes and white wigs arguing that the names of their clients, who were sometimes referred to as "Mr X" and other ad hoc pseudonyms should be kept out of the proceedings -- a strange scene, the Times said.
