UBS trader Tom Hayes pleaded for associates to lower yen Libor in 2008
Bloomberg has a great narrative story of Tom Hayes and his role in the libor rigging scandal in 2008.
Hayes dialed one of his most trusted brokers in London. "I need you to keep it as low as possible, all right?" Hayes said. "I'll pay you, you know, $50,000, $100,000, whatever. Whatever you want, all right?"
It's a long read but it's a great portrait of an obsessive (and one-time successful) trader.
Ultimately, he fell trap to trying to exaggerate profits by bribing the people who set Libor. The shocking part, is how little it took. One willingly set Libor higher for nothing more than a free curry.
On the enforcement side, it references the WSJ expose on Libor on April 16, 2008 as the trigger for what caused regulators to begin poking around. It's a small but seminal piece of financial journalism.
Interestingly, the WSJ also published a story on Hayes yesterday.
Hayes has been sentenced to 14 years in UK prison.
