Barclays Trader Who Wanted Access To Hottest Rate Rigging Chatroom Had To Prove Himself During Rigorous 4-Week Probation Period
"That's gonna be you up there if you fuck this up."
As you may have heard, earlier today a slew of global banks pleaded guilty to manipulating LIBOR and currency rates, and agreed to pay over $5 billion in fines to various regulators. We've already been privy to manyof the most incriminatingand embarrassingmessages exchanged between traders smart enough to instant message each other all day every day about engaging in fraud. Today brings a look at what it took score an invite to "The Cartel," AKA one of the most prestigious chat rooms for this particular type of scam; apparently the process to become a member was not unlike that of joining Crips and Bloods.
In one instance, recounted by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), a Barclays forex trader was looking for an invitation to a particularly exclusive chatroom known as "The Cartel," which included traders from Citigroup, JPMorgan, UBS, RBS, and Barclays. The trader, who was the main Euro trader for Barclays in 2011, made various arguments about how he "would add value" to the chatroom, according to the NYDFS. Ultimately, they let him join for a one-month trial, but allegedly with a pretty ominous warning: "[M]ess this up and sleep with one eye open at night."
