We might have thought that the rate-rigging bankers, ‘the LIBOR manipulators’ were justly jailed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, but over 5 episodes, Andy questions the traditional narrative. A brilliant and compelling account of a huge establishment cover-up. The stories of low-level traders who found themselves expendable are brutal and heart-rending. I was prepared to hear that the big beasts of the banking world protected themselves at the expense of those further down the food chain, I was less prepared for the revelations that official UK institutionsappearedto contribute to the miscarriages of justice Verity brings to life." The rate depended on daily submissions from low-ranking bankers to form a consensus on the cost of funding on any given day. As Rigged reveals, their instructions come first from top bosses – then from central banks and governments. But when the scandal explodes into the news, prosecutors allow banks to cover up the evidence pointing to the top. Instead, they accuse 37 traders of another kind of interest rate ‘rigging’ that no-one had seen as a crime. In nine trials from 2015 to 2019, nineteen are convicted and sentenced. Rigged exclusively shows why all the defendants are innocent, and how any real culprits go unpunished.

Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from Bookshop.org, who support independent bookshops We might have thought that the rate-rigging bankers, ‘the LIBOR manipulators’ were justly jailed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. But over five episodes, Andy questions the traditional narrative. Continent Latest news, analysis and comment from POLITICO’s editors and guest writers on the continent. In interviews with convicted traders, including one on the run, Andy hears how it appears blame for manipulating LIBOR was shifted onto junior traders, while those higher up escaped prosecution.The Lowball Tapes exposes evidence, much of it kept out of the trials, to show how they were instructed to give a falsely low LIBOR rate, "to lowball". Outraged, some of the traders turn whistleblowers - but rather than stopping the deception, the whistleblowers find themselves pursued. Andy Verity, the BBC’s Economics Correspondent, has audio recordings, kept secret for years, which reveal evidence that could upend the received version of the biggest scandal since the financial crash. Well, you might say, if my boss asked me to manipulate an international financial benchmark, I’d refuse. But the lesson from Rigged is that it’s not that easy. Work confines us morally as well as physically, we seek compromises and attempt to change things from within, not realising that the people above us have made no such trade-off – and when the illusions are exposed, we are left with the bill. The state's pursuit of Libor traders from 2012 onwards took place amid mass public anger towards banks and bankers for the role they played in the global financial crisis of 2008, which hit economies the world over. Libor until then was a little-known process that bankers used to help set the price at which banks and other institutions would lend to each other, but became a central point of focus in the blame game for what went wrong.

Andy has always been an uncompromising journalist, and he's fought to tell a dystopian tale of a lowballing scandal at the top of financial society. I suspect reading the details will be eye-opening..."Andy Verity, the BBC’s Economics Correspondent has audio recordings, kept secret for years, which reveal evidence that could upend the received version of the biggest scandal since the financial crash.

New evidence dropped to BBC journalist Andy Verity by a whistleblower, however, casts doubt on whether justice was properly dispensed in the prosecution of the traders. The Lowball Tapes exposes evidence, much of it kept out of the trials, to show how they were instructed to give a falsely low LIBOR rate, ‘to lowball.’ Outraged, some of the traders turn whistle-blowers; but rather than stopping the deception, the whistle-blowers find themselves pursued.