U.K. SFO's `Appetite' Questioned After Decision to Drop FX Probe
- Decision comes after $10 billion in fines for global banks
- Move closes two-year investigation with no convictions
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The U.K. Serious Fraud Office dropped a nearly two-year-old investigation into currency rigging citing insufficient evidence, leading lawyers to question whether courtroom setbacks in its Libor-manipulation probe have curtailed the agency’s appetite for high-profile financial cases.
Despite concluding there were grounds to suspect fraud, the SFO said the prospect of convictions wasn’t “realistic.” The decision comes two months after the embattled prosecutor lost a case against brokers accused of helping ex-UBS Group AG trader Tom Hayes rig Libor, the interest-rate benchmark that caused a similar global storm among authorities to the currency case.