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LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Six traders pleaded not guilty onTuesday to charges they tried to rig global interest rates inthe first prosecution to focus on Euribor, the Brussels-basedequivalent of Libor.
The five men and one woman who appeared at London'sSouthwark Crown Court included Christian Bittar, 45, who wasonce one of Deutsche Bank's most profitable traders,and former senior Barclays trader Philippe Moryoussef,48. Both are French and now based in Singapore.
Achim Kraemer, a 52 year-old German still employed byDeutsche, and former Barclays traders Colin Bermingham, a60-year-old Briton, Anglo-Italian Carlo Palombo, 38, and SisseBohart, a 39-year-old Dane, are also facing charges.
They were all charged with one count of conspiracy todefraud between January 2005 and December 2009 by making orprocuring false or misleading Euribor rates to boost tradingprofits. The offence carries a maximum 10-year jail term.
Their trial has been scheduled to begin on September 4.
The first rate-fixing prosecution to focus on Euribor wasdelayed last year when five of 11 traders Britain's SeriousFraud Office (SFO) planned to charge did not appear at a Londoncourt hearing. Four remain in Germany and one in France.
Authorities have fined 11 financial institutions around $9.0billion and charged about 30 people in a global inquiry into howbanks set rates such as Libor (London interbank offered rate)and Euribor (euro interbank offered rate), which determine therates on trillions of loans and financial contracts globally.($1 = 0.9255 euros) (Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Rachel Armstrong andKeith Weir)
