Vincent McGonagle (JD '88) featured in Bloomberg Business for role in exposing Libor corruption
September 13, 2015 -- Pepperdine Law alumnus Vincent McGonagle (JD '88), Director, Division of Market Oversight, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was featured in a Bloomberg Business article for his role in exposing the Libor financial markets scandal. The article, entitled "Was Tom Hayes Running the Biggest Financial Conspiracy in History?", casts McGonagle as a dogged crusader against unethical business practices.
Excerpted from BloombergBusiness:
On an unseasonably cold April morning in 2008, Vince McGonagle closed the door of his office at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington and settled in to read the morning papers. Small and wiry, with a hangdog expression, McGonagle had been at the enforcement division of the CFTC for 12 years, during which time his red hair had turned gray around the edges. He was now a senior manager. The headline on Page 1 of the Wall Street Journal read, "Bankers Cast Doubt on Key Rate Amid Crisis"....
....A practicing Catholic, McGonagle got his law degree from Pepperdine University, a Christian school in California where he took more seriously than most the mission of a life of "purpose, service, and leadership." While classmates took highly paid positions defending companies and individuals accused of corruption, McGonagle built a career bringing cases against them....
....The investigations into Libor kick-started by McGonagle and his colleagues at the CFTC have resulted in close to a dozen firms being fined a combined $10 billion. More than 100 traders and brokers have been dismissed or have left the industry. For those who remain in banking, the trading floor in the post-Hayes era looks like a very different, more chastened place....
Photo: cftc.gov