It is an often repeated sentiment that “nobody is above the law”. The caveat that should go at the end of the clause is usually forgotten: “in theory”. Organisations and people with enough influence or well-placed friends may not be above the law, but laws seem to bend out of their way, granting them a de facto immunity that the rest of us would only ever transiently enjoy by possessing the “Get out of jail free” card in a game of Monopoly.
The financial world has been rocked by a series of scandals involving a range of crimes from the knowing mis-selling of payment protection insurance to rate fixing scandals for metals, Forex spot fixing and, most famously LIBOR, a rate that has implications for trillions of Dollars’ worth of deals per day around the globe.
As one of the world’s leading financial centres, London has been at the eye of the storm for many of these scandals (although they almost all involve multi-bank, multi-national dimensions because of the complex and interlinked nature of the modern financial industry). The UK government has acted to frame new legislation which can be applied to these crimes (theoretically, of course); for instance, rigging LIBOR now carries a maximum seven year term going forward. This will be of little comfort to Tom Hayes who was sentenced to 14 years in jail for his part in the LIBOR scandal under existing legislation pertaining to fraud.
Six more individuals have gone on trial in the UK on charges relating to fixing LIBOR in a manner to enrich themselves or others. If the Hayes trial is anything to go by, the defence that they did not believe that their actions were criminal or that the practice was widespread, and done with the connivance of their line management will not see them spared a jail term. It is to be hoped (along the lines of a little girl hoping that Santa will bring her a pony for Christmas) that judicial authorities will ensure that anybody complicit in these crimes is brought to book. It is more likely that the most senior people involved in these scandals will be on the right side of the “influential friends” high tide mark, but at least the criminality of these acts has been publicly acknowledged. If anybody actually believes that the LIBOR scandal only involved seven individuals in the UK, we could discuss a lucrative real estate deal in the Okefenokee Swamp that I may have…