Jonathan Mathew is one of the bankers at Barclays who participated in the Libor rigging fraud, which cost people all over the world trillions of dollars in higher payments on mortgages, government bonds, student loans, and other assets totalling $350 trillion.
Mathew was the first banker to admit to rigging Libor. Now he's in court in London, testifying about what happened. The partially deaf, dyslexic banker says his boss, senior Barclay's trader Peter Johnson, used to hit him with a miniature baseball bat on the back of the head and the knuckles.
Mathew said Johnson also had a 12-inch baseball bat on his desk, which he sometimes used to hit him on the back of the head or knuckles. "It wasn't particularly hard, it was more designed to humiliate me," said Mathew in court. His boss also called him a 'deaf git' and in emails referred to him as "bick drain", a spoonerism that wouldn't get flagged up by email filters.
Despite his ordeal, Mathew said he had learned a great deal from Johnson who, in October 2014, admitted fixing Libor rates. "He was old school, a hard taskmaster and in the same respect he was a good teacher as well," said Mathew, who is accused by the Serious Fraud Office of modifying Libor rates at the request of traders. Mathew no longer works for the bank.
Barclays banker accused of rigging Libor rate 'hit assistant with baseball bat'
[Mark Piggott/International Business Times]
(via Naked Capitalism)
(Image: Left 4 Dead 2 – BaseBall Bat OWNAGE
)
