UBS to pay $1.5 billion over interest rate rigging

(AP) The Justice Department says an international investment bank will pay more than $1.5 billion in penalties in three nations to resolve charges of trying to manipulate an interest rate used as a benchmark in global banking transactions.

Attorney General Eric Holder says UBS Securities Japan Co. Ltd., will plead guilty to felony wire fraud and admit to attempting to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate.

Two former UBS senior traders will be charged with conspiracy, including one also charged with wire fraud in New York federal court.

USB Japan will pay $100 million; its parent, USB AG in Zurich, will pay another $400 million. Another billion dollars in fines will go to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority, and the Swiss Financial Market Authority.