Rigged: The Incredible True Story of the Whistleblowers Jailed after Exposing the Rotten Heart of the Financial System

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Verity claims that when the Treasury and the Bank of England found out this was happening, they didn’t try to stop the fraud – they made it compulsory. If you’ve ever suspected the banking system of operating in someone else’s interest than yours, you’re right. It’s that fact which meant I struggled a bit with what to think of the book - the entire scandal always seemed a bit overblown relative to the scale of the financial crisis (wasn’t it pretty obviously the thing that got prosecuted because it felt comprehensible, rather than because it merited it? This case illustrates why Parliament should bolster its information-gathering powers with more effective sanctions against those who provide less than the full picture.

Ever since I joined Twitter in 2010, my avatar has always been a picture of me, and my Twitter name has always been my own name. The tactic of interviewing the traders under the guise of co-operating in a fraud investigation in which their employer (or former employer) was the target was simply reprehensible. It is assumed the accusers, and the authorities took comfort that the falsely accused person went to heaven. He has led the media in exposing the true story behind the scandal of interest rate rigging, including a Panorama film revealing the Bank of England’s role in it and 'The Lowball Tapes', a 2022 podcast for BBC Radio 4 shortlisted for two awards.In the sense that so many have conspired to conceal this "low-balling" criminality for so long, I can scarcely comprehend what I have just read.

A co-ordinated drive by national central banks and governments pressed banks to manipulate the Libor and Euribor benchmark interest rates at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, an exposé to be published next week alleges. Well, you might say, if my boss asked me to manipulate an international financial benchmark, I’d refuse. Tucker rejected allegations of low-balling, saying the Bank believed the numbers represented "a malfunctioning market, not a dishonest market. By “lowballing” the rate, the bank was making its financial position appear a lot stronger than it really was.Joining the BBC from The Independent, he worked first as personal finance correspondent then as a presenter on BBC Radio Five Live, where for 8 years he hosted the BBC’s daily financial radio programme and popular podcast Wake up to Money.

When PJ posted more realistic rates, however, it appeared as if Barclays was in trouble, so his bosses, reportedly under pressure from the Treasury and the Bank of England, insisted he post numbers that were “within the pack”. And as the book reveals in such a gripping way, the people responsible are not the innocent traders that became the victims of what must be some of the most heinous, horrendous and frankly horrific miscarriages of justices we have ever seen. They remain the only bankers jailed since the 2008 financial crisis – and they’re innocent of the crimes of which they are accused. Libor or London Interbank offered rate was a key benchmark in the setting of interest rates for companies and consumers.At the height of the 2008 financial crisis, when bank lending had almost ground to a halt, central banks around the world urged calm.