Former Australian Rabobank trader en route to US to face Libor rigging charges

PERTH - Former Rabobank trader Paul Thompson is en route to the United States to face charges for alleged manipulation of a global benchmark interest rate, Australia's attorney general said on Wednesday. "Mr Paul Thompson, an Australian national, has been surrendered to the United States from Australia pursuant to a request for his extradition," a spokesperson for the Attorney General Department told Reuters. Thompson was arrested last October after a global investigation into whether some bankers rigged Libor to bolster their profits. Libor is the leading benchmark for pricing financial transactions around the world. Two former Rabobank traders were sentenced to prison in March after being convicted in the first US trial arising from global investigations into the manipulation of Libor, the leading benchmark for pricing financial transactions. 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. -Reuters