Former Australian Rabobank trader agrees to U.S. extradition - court

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Former Australian Rabobank [RABO.UL] trader Paul Dion Thompson on Friday consented to being extradited to the United States to face charges for alleged benchmark interest rate manipulation, a court said.Thompson was arrested in October last year for allegedly manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) to help him make money on his trading positions during his five-year tenure at the Rabobank Singapore, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on Friday.Two former Rabobank traders were sentenced to prison in March after being convicted in the first U.S. trial arising from global investigations into the manipulation of Libor, the leading benchmark for pricing financial transactions.A spokeswoman at the Perth Magistrates Court said the court had issued an "outcome of application" in which Thompson had agreed to extradition to the United States.Thompson could not be reached for comment and his lawyer declined to comment on the matter.Libor, or the London interbank offered rate, is a short-term rate financial institutions charge each other for loans that is calculated based on submissions by a panel of banks. Hundreds of trillions of dollars in short-term interest rates, swaps and other financial products are pegged to Libor.(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Robert Birsel)Join the conversation about this story
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