Four ex-Barclays bankers sentenced for roles in Libor rate-rigging scandal
Four ex-Barclays bankers have today been given prison sentences totalling 17 years between them for their roles in the Libor-rigging scandal.
Former bankers Jay Merchant, 45, Alex Pabon, 38, and Jonathan Mathew, 35, were sentenced to six and a half years, two years and nine months and four years respectively after having been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.
Fellow former banker Peter Johnson, 61, was sentenced to four years having pleaded guilty in October 2014.
The four are expected to only serve half of their sentences in custody before being released on licence.
Johnson was also ordered to pay £114,501.19 under a confiscation order and £30,000 in costs within 14 days. If he fails to pay the confiscation order within that time limit, he faces a further two and a half years being added to his sentence.
Confiscation proceedings for the other three men have been adjourned until a later date.
The prosecution said that the four former bankers played roles in a scheme to manipulate US dollar linked Libor between 1 June 2005 and 1 September 2007.
After an 11-week trial, Merchant was found guilty by an unanimous verdict, while Mathew was found guilty by a majority verdict of 11-1 and Pabon by 10-2.
A charge of conspiracy to defraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
The trial, which was heard at Southwark Crown Court, was the third brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in its ongoing investigation into Libor manipulation.
So far, the SFO has secured five convictions as part of the high-profile probe. Former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes was found guilty last August on eight counts of conspiracy to defraud in relation to manipulating yen-linked Libor.
Hayes was originally sentenced to 14 years of prison time but this was reduced to 11 years on appeal.
"[Today's] sentences are not insignificant but in line with the length imposed in many SFO fraud prosecutions," said Sarah Wallace, head of regulatory & criminal investigations group London at Irwin Mitchell. "However, they are way off the 11 year ‘show-stopper’ that was imposed on Hayes."