Five former Barclays traders jailed for plotting to rig global benchmark interest rates have won an appeal to clear their names, in a ruling that further unravels some of the Serious Fraud Office's most high-profile prosecutions.
London's Court of Appeal on Wednesday quashed the convictions of Philippe Moryoussef, Jay Merchant, Colin Bermingham, Jonathan Mathew and Alex Pabon. The men had been sentenced to between 33 months and eight years in prison between 2016 and 2019 after a series of landmark SFO trials over the manipulation of Libor and its euro equivalent, Euribor.
The traders applied to clear their names after the Supreme Court last year overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes, the former star UBS and Citigroup trader, and his former Barclays colleague Carlo Palombo. The Supreme Court ruled that trial judges had misdirected juries and that legal errors had undermined the fairness of the trials, laying the groundwork for this week's decision.
The men were once cast by prosecutors as symbols of banker greed at a time of taxpayer fury over eye-watering bank bailouts following the 2007-09 financial crisis. Their trials were among the most significant white-collar prosecutions ever brought in Britain.
The human cost was on display outside the courtroom. Colin Bermingham, 70, was tearful as he spoke to reporters. It's hard to take in, he said. You don't believe it until you hear it.
Moryoussef, now 58, gained notoriety for jumping bail and fleeing to his native France. He was tried in London in his absence, sentenced to eight years in prison, and has remained a fugitive since. Today, I am regaining my soul, and for the first time, I can envision my next chapter in peace, he said in a statement.
The ruling is the latest blow to the SFO, whose record in major fraud trials has faced sustained criticism. For the five men, it ends a legal ordeal stretching back a decade, though the years lost to prison and the stigma of conviction cannot be undone. The five men were a mixed group: Moryoussef is French, Merchant was born in Calcutta, Bermingham and Mathew are Britons, and Pabon is American. Their trials, held between 2016 and 2019, were portrayed at the time as a reckoning for the City after the financial crisis. The Court of Appeal judges are expected to publish their full reasons, which will be pored over by lawyers for what they reveal about the SFO's approach to some of its biggest cases.
The judgment raises fresh questions about whether Britain's most celebrated financial crime prosecutions were built on flawed legal foundations.