Concerns expressed by top lawmakers about possible series of miscarriages of justice have the Supreme Court ready to decide on the cases of two former City traders imprisoned for manipulating interest rates.
Should the traders be successful in their application—which the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opposes—all outstanding convictions obtained in nine criminal trials might be quashed.
Former UBS trader Tom Hayes became the first banker imprisoned for “rigging” interest rates in August 2015.
At 35, he was charged by the United States Department of Justice and the Serious Fraud Office as a “ringmaster” of an international fraud conspiracy and sentenced to 14 years in jail.
He is currently awaiting a vital Supreme Court ruling alongside former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo.
Among 37 City traders accused of “manipulating” the interest rate benchmarks Libor and Euribor, which track borrowing cash between the banks and used to set the interest rates on millions of mortgages and commercial loans, were Hayes and Palombo.
From 2015 to 2019, 19 were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud and nine were sent to jail in criminal trials held on both sides of the Atlantic.
