In October 2019, former Deutsche Bank traders Matthew Connolly and Gavin Black were convicted by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York of wire fraud and conspiracy charges related to alleged manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). In January 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed their convictions and ordered the entry of judgments of acquittal because the prosecution had “failed to prove” that Connolly or Black had engaged in any criminal conduct. United States v. Connolly, 24 F.4th 821, 843 (2d Cir. 2022).

The story of this case, and the conviction and ultimate exoneration of two individuals who had committed no crime, highlights two alarming trends: first, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) outsourcing its criminal investigations to private law firms, and second, targeted institutions placing the blame for alleged wrongdoing on relatively low-level employees to avoid more serious criminal consequences themselves.