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UK Court Quashes Convictions of Five Barclays Traders in Rate-Rigging Case
Confirmed
In Short: The UK Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of five former Barclays traders involved in the Libor and Euribor rate-rigging scandal, according to Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) and BBC (United Kingdom).
Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) reported that the Supreme Court ruled that the trial judge had misdirected the jury and that legal errors undermined the fairness of the trials, laying the groundwork for the Court of Appeal's decision. BBC (United Kingdom) noted that the ruling came after two other former City traders had their convictions overturned last year, which paved the way for others to appeal.
The five traders—Philippe Moryoussef, Jay Merchant, Colin Bermingham, Jonathan Mathew, and Alex Pabon—were convicted in 2016 and received sentences ranging from two to six-and-a-half years. Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) and BBC (United Kingdom) both reported that the Court of Appeal quashed their convictions on Wednesday.
According to Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), the traders were cast by prosecutors as a symbol of banker greed at a time of taxpayer fury over bank bailouts following the 2007-2009 credit crisis. BBC (United Kingdom) highlighted that the scandal erupted when regulators discovered that traders at major banks had been colluding to influence Libor and Euribor submissions, which underpinned trillions of dollars in financial contracts.
Lord Justice Andrew Edis, who indicated that the full reasoning behind the court's decision would be published later on Wednesday, said in a statement that the Supreme Court had found “ample evidence” on which a properly directed jury could have convicted Hayes and Palombo, according to BigGo Finance.
The SFO, which did not contest the appeals by the Barclays traders, reiterated in a statement that the Supreme Court had found “ample evidence” on which a properly directed jury could have convicted Hayes and Palombo, according to Arabnews (Saudi Arabia).
, according to BigGo Finance. That determination focused on the instructions given to jurors regarding the legal standards for proving dishonesty, a technical but consequential flaw that undermined the foundation of the prosecutions.
The five men occupied different roles within Barclays' trading operations and received varying sentences across three separate trials. Moryoussef, 58, was a senior trader based in London who received the longest sentence of the group at eight years. He was convicted in absentia in 2018 and never served time in the UK after French authorities declined to extradite him.
The decision to overturn the convictions of the five who worked at Barclays will be formally handed down by the court at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) and follows a landmark 2025 Supreme Court ruling that quashed two other ex-traders’ convictions, according to Macaubusiness.
, prompting the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to determine that also impacted the cases of the five others.
The sources have not established the exact timeline of events leading up to the Supreme Court's ruling or the full reasoning behind the Court of Appeal's decision.
What's confirmed
- Mathew said the "strain" of what he had gone through had been a burden on him for the last 10 years. "Having this conviction quashed is not simply about correcting the record, it's about finally having validation that this is an injustice that never should have happened," the 45-year-old said. "I now have two children and this means a great deal to have the record corrected for their sake as well."
- Merchant, 55, added that he looked forward to moving on with his life, but said part of that would be "ensuring that those responsible for what happened are held fully accountable".
- The Court of Appeal in London will quash Wednesday the criminal convictions of five financial traders for manipulating the Libor interest rate benchmarks and its euro equivalent Euribor, their lawyers announced.
- The decision to overturn the convictions of the five who worked at Barclays will be formally handed down by the court at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) and follows a landmark 2025 Supreme Court ruling that quashed two other ex-traders’ convictions.
What's still developing
- But it added: “After carefully considering this judgment and the full circumstances, we do not oppose the appeals of five individuals convicted by juries in relation to Libor and Euribor.” A further attempted appeal by Christian Bittar, a French former star Deutsche Bank trader sentenced to jail in 2018, is expected to be heard on Friday.
- “It’s hard to take in,” said a tearful Bermingham, 70, outside the courtroom.
- LONDON: Five former Barclays traders, jailed in Britain for plotting to rig global benchmark interest rates, won an appeal to clear their names on Wednesday, further unraveling some of the UK Serious Fraud Office’s most high-profile prosecutions.
- Rate 'rigging' traders say they were scapegoated - now the Supreme Court will decide The financial crisis began in 2008, sending huge economic shockwaves across the world and triggering recessions in many countries.
- Pabon, 48, who had his name cleared on Wednesday, hailed Hayes for his refusal to "let it go".
- He had "pushed this through" for the rest of them, he said.
- “For the last 10 years, the stain of a criminal conviction has been a burden I have carried every minute of every day,” said Mathew, 45, who was convicted of conspiracy to defraud in 2016.
- Bittar, once dubbed one of the world’s most skilled traders, is the only case that is being contested by the SFO following his guilty plea more than eight years ago.
- But the men applied to clear their names after the Supreme Court last year overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes — a former star UBS and Citigroup trader — and ex-Barclays peer Carlo Palombo for rigging now-defunct interbank interest rate Libor and its euro equivalent, Euribor.
- "Having this conviction quashed is not simply about correcting the record, it's about finally having validation that this is an injustice that never should have happened," the 45-year-old said.