By David Enrich
LONDON--British prosecutors said Thursday that former UBS AG
(UBS, UBSN.VX) and Citigroup Inc. (C) trader Tom Hayes is accused
of conspiring with employees of at least eight other financial
institutions in an attempt to manipulate benchmark interest
rates.
Mr. Hayes was charged Tuesday with eight counts of conspiracy to
defraud, the first person charged in connection with the U.K.'s
burgeoning interest-rate-manipulation investigations. He appeared
in a London court Thursday for the first time. He didn't enter a
plea. His case was transferred to another court, which will hold a
preliminary hearing on July 4.
The charges read in court on Thursday indicate that prosecutors'
case involves a wide swath of big-name financial institutions.
Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Hayes, 33 years old, conspired with
employees of Deutsche Bank AG (DB, DBK.XE), HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC,
HSBA.LN), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Royal Bank of Scotland
Group PLC (RBS, RBS.LN), Rabobank Group, ICAP PLC, Tullett Prebon
PLC (TLPR.LN) and R.P. Martin Holdings Ltd., as well as with former
colleagues at UBS and Citigroup.
Representatives of most of those institutions declined to
comment or weren't immediately available to comment Thursday. An
ICAP spokeswoman said the firm hasn't been charged and has provided
information to investigators and continues to cooperate.
Mr. Hayes didn't respond to the charges in court Thursday. He
wrote in a January text message to The Wall Street Journal that
"this goes much much higher than me."
Write to David Enrich at david.enrich@wsj.com