The FBI in Baltimore said yesterday that "we have no legal case right now" against Mr John Rusnak, and that he was free to move about as he wished for the present.
"It's not as though the guy is walking out of the bank with a gun in his hand," said FBI agent Mr Peter Gulotta. "White collar crime is different from violent crime where you want to make sure you get him off the street."
Mr Rusnak, the currency trader who was reported missing by Allfirst bank on Monday after it unearthed losses of $750 million (€859 million), is living at his home in a Baltimore suburb. He has warned reporters who called at the house, that he will ask the police to charge them with trespassing.
"A lot of work has to be done, it's not as simple as people make out," Mr Gulotta said. "We want first to get all our ducks in a row. We are doing interviews with a bunch of people. We are moving very quickly but don't expect charges anytime soon.
" If the facts warrant it there will be a prosecution. We are working hand in glove with the US Attorney's office and it is up to them to determine the extent of the problem." Mr Gulotta would not confirm a leaked report in the Wall Street Journal saying that, while Mr Rusnak's assets were being looked at, the FBI did not regard his behaviour as that of an embezzler. The FBI earlier this week said it was investigating embezzlement and fraud in the case. The fact that no travel restrictions have been put on Mr Rusnak seems to indicate it does not think he has money stashed away.
"He hung around Baltimore" after the news broke, an FBI official is quoted as saying. "It isn't looking like he embezzled $750 million and has an island in the Caribbean." The trader is highly regarded in his neighbourhood as a family man and active parishioner at his local Sacred Heart church. Acquaintances have expressed shock and disbelief at his alleged actions and insist that, whatever he did, he was not intent on robbing the bank.
Financial experts from the FBI's 300-strong Baltimore office are helping investigate whether or not a crime was committed in the case, Mr Gulotta said. Mr Rusnak was said to have told FBI agents in interviews that he made a series of bad investments on behalf of the bank and then got in deeper as he tried to recover his losses through a strategy that evaded bank controls. When the markets turned down it became impossible to recoup the losses.
He was believed to have bet heavily on the yen rising against the US dollar. Instead it fell 20 per cent in the last year. The question being investigated by the FBI is whether he was authorised to make the investments and whether any unauthorised investments would be considered criminal violations.
Mr Rusnak's lawyer, Mr David Irwin said: "I'm pretty sure the investigation will show that there's no theft of the bank by my client. I suspect we will find that the regulation and audit standards were not up to current large corporate standards." While free to move about, Mr Rusnak is constrained as he waits for the end of his legal limbo. He clearly has to make himself available for interrogation by the FBI at any time. He has also been besieged by reporters staking out his rambling wood frame house among the pine trees of Smith Avenue.
Mr Gulotta said the results of inquiries would be delivered to the US attorney's office. A grand jury might then be impanneled.
