US: DOJ wants guilty pleas

The Justice Department plans to try and force four major banks to plead guilty to criminal antitrust charges for alleged collusion by traders in foreign-currency markets. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

In the final stages of a long-running investigation into corruption in the world’s largest financial market, federal prosecutors have recently informed Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Citigroup that they must enter guilty pleas to settle the cases, according to lawyers briefed on the matter. 

The currency investigation began in earnest two years ago with the suspicion that traders across Wall Street manipulated the foreign exchange market, pushing prices up and down to suit their own holdings.

In November, six banks sought to close the first chapter of the case, agreeing to pay a combined $4.25 billion to settle with financial regulators in Washington and Britain. The settlement, which included JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, the Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and HSBC, exposed the way banks colluded to manipulate currencies through emails and online chat rooms.

Now that the Justice Department has opened settlement talks in the case, demanding guilty pleas for antitrust and fraud charges,

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

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