UK fraud head expects corporate plea deals, considers Libor charges

* SFO head David Green gives evidence to UK lawmakers

* Green says "significant" new DPAs on horizon

* Green says Serco probe looking at "different conduct"

By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO)expects to agree some "significant" corporate plea deals overthe coming months and is also considering filing more charges inthe Libor benchmark rate rigging investigation, its head said onTuesday.

The SFO's probe into alleged manipulation of benchmark ratessuch as Libor (London interbank offered rate), which began in2012, has so far resulted in five convictions and six acquittalsof individuals. Eight others face trial next year.

SFO director David Green told a parliamentary committee oflawmakers that there were also "some others" who it had todecide whether to charge.

Lawmakers asked whether the SFO had the resources to providea credible threat of prosecution if companies failed to reportthemselves to the authorities when they discover wrongdoing.

Green said he had spent four years speaking at leastfortnightly with businesses and lawyers explaining theincentives behind self-reporting, while building up the agency'sintelligence division.

"You will see over the coming months some significantdeferred prosecution agreements (DPAs)," he said.

DPAs, effective plea deals introduced in Britain in 2014,were a useful tool to encourage good corporate conduct, Greensaid, and were available to those who report wrongdoingpromptly, cooperate, grant authorities access to factualdocuments and assist in prosecuting individuals.

A judge approved Britain's first DPA in November in a casecentred on $6 million in bribes paid to Tanzanian officials bythe Tanzanian unit of South Africa's Standard Bank.

Tesco is among companies cooperating with acriminal inquiry into accounting practices, launched after thesupermarket chain said it overstated half year profits in August2014 by about 260 million pounds ($320 million).

Green also said a new line of inquiry had also been openedin a three-year inquiry into global outsourcing group Serco, launched after an audit alleged the government had beencharged for tagging criminals who were either dead or in prison.

The SFO head gave no further details on the Libor inquiry, aglobal investigation in which it has charged around 20.

Barclays, which has seen 10 former traders chargedfor alleged benchmark rigging and admitted in 2012 tolow-balling, or artificially lowering, rates during the creditcrisis, reiterated in its 2015 annual report that it continuedto respond to information requests as part of an SFO inquiry. (Editing by Alexander Smith)