A British court has acquitted a trader of charges stemming from alleged financial benchmark manipulation at the height of the financial crisis.
The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that Andreas Hauschild, a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, was acquitted on charges of conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court.
The charges arose from the alleged rigging of the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR), a key financial benchmark, during the financial crisis.
U.K. authorities originally alleged that 11 traders at several major banks conspired to submit false or misleading EURIBOR estimates that would benefit their trading positions, and influence the benchmark.
So far, two other traders have also been acquitted, while four senior ex-bankers have been convicted and sentenced to between four and eight years in prison in the case.
Hauschild was charged in 2015, arrested in Italy in 2016 and subsequently extradited to the U.K.
According to the U.K.’s SFO, courts in France and Germany have so far refused to extradite others charged in the case.