From $126-mn bonus to jail: The fall of ex-Deutsche Bank star trader

He was called Mr Basis Point by his colleagues at the bank because of his trades on minuscule changes in short-term interest rates

Christian Bittar was once among Deutsche Bank AG’s highest-paid traders, a math whiz who earned a near 90 million-pound ($126 million) bonus in 2008 alone. Now he’s sitting in a UK prison.

The 46-year-old former star banker pleaded guilty in a London court on March 2 to conspiring to rig the interest-rate benchmark known as Euribor. He’s in custody and will be sentenced after a related trial ends this summer. A court lifted reporting restrictions on his plea Thursday.

It’s a seminal moment for UK prosecutors in their six-year investigation. Bittar, famous for receiving multi-million dollar bonuses, is one of the highest-profile