Two City traders have won their appeals against convictions for rigging benchmark interest rates, with the UK Supreme Court ruling that their trials were unfair. Tom Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, and Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader, had their convictions quashed by a panel of five justices led by Lord Reed.
Hayes, who served five-and-a-half years in prison for rigging the Libor rate, saw his conviction overturned after the court found that the judge in his original trial gave “inaccurate and unfair” instructions to the jury. The justices stated that Hayes was “deprived” of a fair trial, though they noted there was “ample evidence” that could have led to a conviction if properly directed.
Palombo, who was sentenced to four years for rigging Euribor, the euro equivalent of Libor, also had his conviction quashed. He described the case as a “Kafkaesque nightmare”. Lawyers for the pair suggested that other convictions could now be challenged.
The Libor scandal involved traders manipulating the benchmark interest rate, which underpinned over $350tn of loans and securities. Banks paid fines worth hundreds of millions of pounds after regulators found evidence of rate fixing.
