Former UBS banker convicted of Libor rigging wins chance for court appeal
The former UBS banker convicted of Libor rigging in the UK will see his conviction referred to the Court of Appeal in a major development in his campaign to prove his innocence.
Tom Hayes, a former trader at UBS and Citibank, was one of a number of traders sentenced for a cumulative total of almost 50 years for ‘rigging’ the interest rate charged by banks to borrow cash from each other.
Hayes was found to have artificially rigged the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) by submitting either ‘high’ or ‘low’ estimates of the interest rate they were currently charging and being offered. That rate influenced interest rates offered by banks for mortgage holders and a host of other products.
He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2015 but has long protested his innocence.
His conviction in the US was quashed in January of this year, and in a major update today, the UK’s Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said it would now refer his conviction to the Court of Appeal on the grounds it may follow the US precedent.
“The CCRC has concluded that there is a real possibility that the Court of Appeal will prefer the legal approach to the definition and operation of the LIBOR rules taken by the US Court and overturn Mr Hayes’ conviction,” the CCRC said in a statement.
Hayes said he was “delighted” with the news that his case would be referred for appeal after a six and half year investigation.
“It is now time for all those convicted of Libor rigging to get justice,” he added. “Although we have all served our custodial sentence the scars of our experiences remain today and continue to plague us.”
He added that it was a “tragedy” that lives were “ruined by the false narrative propagated from 2012 when various inquiries were lied to by multiple powerful institutions”.