LIBOR scandal is 'huge': Eliot Spitzer

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The LIBOR scandal that has engulfed London's financial and political elites is entering its third week and picking up steam on this side of the Atlantic.

Among the latest developments:

• The NY Times reports the Justice Department's criminal division is "building cases against several financial institutions and their employees."
• State Attorneys General in New York and Connecticut are investigating whether states incurred losses because of LIBOR manipulation which "could lead to a wider multi-state enforcement action," The WSJ reports.
• Top officials of the British version of the SEC, the Financial Services Authority, will testify before Parliament on why regulators failed to respond to concerns about LIBOR rigging going back to 2008. Congress is set to hold similarly themed hearings later this week and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is almost certain to be asked about the matter when he testifies on Capitol Hill Tuesday and Wednesday.

In the accompanying video, taped Friday, I discuss the scandal with former New York Governor and Wall Street prosecutor Eliot Spitzer.

"LIBOR is huge," Spitzer says. "This is about as big as it gets in the financial world. [LIBOR] goes to the heart of every piece of debt that's issued to consumers -- your auto loan, your credit card debt."

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Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @aarontask or email him at altask@yahoo.com

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/libor-scandal-huge-eliot-spitzer-132610929.html

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