LIBOR and FX Prosecutions End with Government Defeats

September 12, 2025  |  New York Law Journal

White-collar criminal investigations often begin with high-profile corporate resolutions and admissions of wrongdoing, only to be followed by decidedly mixed results when individuals test government theories at trial.  We saw this outcome in two very recent court decisions.  In Johnson v. United States, the Second Circuit set aside a conviction for alleged dishonest FX trading because of the legal and factual flaws in the government’s wire fraud theories.  In R(Respondent) v Hayes (Appellant), the U.K. Supreme Court quashed LIBOR- and EURIBOR- related fraud convictions because the jury instructions were legally flawed.  In their latest article for the NYLJ, “LIBOR and FX Prosecutions End with Government Defeats,” Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello Partners Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack trace the evolution of these prosecutions and explore the limits of using criminal law to regulate alleged misconduct in sophisticated financial markets. 

LIBOR and FX Prosecutions End with Government Defeats