The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has referred the convictions of five former City traders to the Court of Appeal, following the Supreme Court's quashing of Tom Hayes' conviction last year. The men were jailed between 2016 and 2019 for manipulating the Euribor and Libor interest rates, which affected the value of pensions, mortgages, and savings globally.
The CCRC said on Thursday that after analysing submissions, it found no distinguishing factor between these cases and those of Hayes and Carlo Palombo, whose convictions were overturned in July 2025. The Supreme Court had ruled that the trial judge gave 'inaccurate and unfair' instructions to the jury in Hayes' case, and similar legal errors were identified in Palombo's trial.
The five traders—Alex Pabon, Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, and Colin Bermingham—had their cases referred after the Serious Fraud Office acknowledged that their convictions 'may be considered unsafe' in light of the Hayes and Palombo rulings. Pabon, Merchant, and Mathew were convicted in 2016 and received sentences ranging from two to six-and-a-half years, while Moryoussef and Bermingham were sentenced to eight and five years respectively in 2018 and 2019.
The CCRC noted that the jury misdirection and legal errors undermined the safety of all five convictions. The cases will now be heard by the Court of Appeal, which will decide whether to quash the convictions. In a separate development, Hayes is suing his former employer UBS for $400m, alleging he was made a scapegoat for the Libor scandal.
