How Goldman Sachs tried to entice Thomas Hayes by UBS

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. tried to poach

Thomas Hayes from UBS Group AG in 2008 with the promise of a $3

million signing bonus.The job offer was disclosed Thursday in an e-mail sent by

one of Hayes’s bosses at UBS, Sascha Prinz, years before the

Libor scandal which resulted in Hayes facing criminal charges

that he conspired to manipulate the benchmark interest rate.

Hayes, 35, is accused of eight counts of conspiracy to

manipulate the London interbank offered rate, the benchmark used

to value more than $350 trillion of loans and securities, from

2006 through September 2010. The former trader, who worked at

banks including UBS and Citigroup Inc., has pleaded not guilty

to the charges. UBS managed to retain Hayes with the improved compensation

package.. Hayes didn’t get the full bonus however,

because of the global financial crisis. Hayes is accused of colluding with co-conspirators at banks

including HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche

Bank AG and interdealer brokers to manipulate yen Libor.

Hayes paid kickbacks to his brokers for their assistance in

rigging the rate. One method of paying the bribes was through so-called wash

trades, where counterparties place two or more matching trades

through the broker that cancel one another out, but still

trigger fees. Between September 2008 and August 2009, UBS paid more than

300,000 pounds ($458,000) in brokerage fees through 14 such

deals to two broker firms.