The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Michael Ross Curtler, a former trader at Deutsche Bank AG, from the UK financial services industry for lacking honesty and integrity following a criminal conviction for fraud in the US.
On 8 October 2015 Mr Curtler pleaded guilty before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for his role in a conspiracy to manipulate Deutsche’s US Dollar LIBOR submissions.
Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “Mr Curtler has admitted engaging in dishonest conduct in making USD LIBOR submissions. Dishonesty must disqualify him from UK financial services. Consequently, he must be prohibited.”
Mr Curtler was employed by Deutsche between 1993 and December 2012. During the period between 2000 and 2012 Mr Curtler traded a variety of financial instruments that were tied to USD LIBOR. On occasions Mr Curtler submitted Deutsche’s USD LIBOR submissions. When he did so, he understood that those submissions were supposed to reflect only the rate at which Deutsche perceived it could borrow USDs in the London interbank market.
Mr Curtler received requests from Deutsche traders to alter his USD LIBOR submissions. These requests were made to benefit the trading positions of Deutsche and the individual traders. Mr Curtler made alterations to the USD LIBOR submissions consistent with these requests. Mr Curtler also solicited requests from traders and changed his USD LIBOR submissions accordingly.
