By Jamie McGeever
LONDON (Reuters) - Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has instructed barrister James Lewis to act as lead counsel in its criminal investigation into allegations of rigging and fraud in the foreign exchange market, the agency said on Monday.
The SFO formally opened its FX probe in July last year and has yet to bring charges against any individual, but scored a victory last month with the successful prosecution of Tom Hayes for manipulating the global "Libor" interest rate markets.
Lewis, a Queen's Counsel and an extradition expert, was instructed to act earlier this month, a spokesman for the SFO told Reuters. He replaces Andrew Baillie, QC.
Hayes was sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiring to rig London interbank offered rates, or Libor, a benchmark for around $450 trillion of financial contracts and consumer loans, between 2006 and 2010.
David Green, director of the SFO, said in a statement at the time that more Libor charges would likely be filed in the autumn, adding: "Our Libor investigation is far-reaching and quite wide ... We haven't finished yet."
In FX, many of the world's biggest banks reached multi-billion dollar settlements with U.S. and UK authorities last November for failing to put in place systems and controls to prevent traders from attempting to rig the $5 trillion-a-day market.
Much of the focus centred on allegations traders shared sensitive and proprietary client order information via electronic chat communications. More than 30 traders have been suspended or fired, but none, as yet, have been charged.
Some FX traders are suing their former employers for unfair dismissal. Perry Stimpson, a 25-year veteran of Citigroup (N:C) until his dismissal days after the worldwide settlements in November, is the first to do so in Britain.
His hearing is scheduled to end later this week, and could be a test case for others.