Latest news with #Hayes'
Mint
6 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Tom Hayes Libor Victory Puts Convictions in $10 Billion Scandal at Risk
(Bloomberg) -- It was an era-defining prosecution for the UK's white collar crime agency. When star trader Tom Hayes was found guilty of rigging a benchmark interest rate in 2015, it set off a raft of other investigations of bankers and traders across the City of London. For the Serious Fraud Office, desperate to highlight that it could hold bankers to account, these actions marked a high-water point. On top of that, regulators made headlines by wringing global fines of almost $10 billion from a dozen banks and brokerages. Now, Hayes' success in quashing his conviction at the UK Supreme Court has upended it all and hit the SFO's reputation. It also raises questions about other convictions in the scandal. 'This result not only clears Mr. Hayes' and Mr. Palombo's names, but could also lead to convictions secured in,' other trials prosecuted by the SFO being reviewed, said Caroline Greenwell, a partner at law firm Charles Russell Speechlys. Hayes, who worked at UBS Group AG, was one of nine individuals convicted by UK authorities for manipulating rates tied to trillions of dollars of loans and securities around the world. With the public still dealing with the repercussions of the 2008 financial crisis – from austerity to job losses and a collapse in property prices – the cases became a high-profile emblem for the banker greed many blamed for what had happened. Ex-Barclays Plc trader Carlo Palombo, who also had his conviction overturned, addressed that very point on Wednesday, saying that the rate-rigging defendants were cast as 'dishonest greedy bankers.' 'We were accused of things that didn't make sense,' he told a press conference. 'We were caught up in this Kafka-esque nightmare.' Hayes' case was by far the most famous in the Libor scandal, but just a year after his trial, three others Barclays, Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant and Alex Pabon, were convicted of similar rigging charges involving the benchmark. Another Barclays banker, Peter Johnson, had pleaded guilty in 2014 as part of the case. A string of further convictions of traders accused of rigging the Euro interbank rate followed. The quashing of the convictions 'raises the very real spectre that all the other convictions relating' to the rate rigging cases 'are also miscarriages of justice,' Robert Newcombe, a criminal barrister, said. Speaking after the ruling, Hayes also pushed the idea that the other bankers involved in the scandal could benefit. 'A guilty plea doesn't mean that they are guilty,' he said. 'All those convictions need to go, including those people that pled guilty off the back of the fact that they felt like they couldn't have a fair trial in this country.' The SFO, which both prosecutes and investigates the most serious white-collar crime in Britain, had opposed Hayes' appeal the entire way through the process, maintaining the convictions were secured fairly. It said in a statement it will 'ensure all those convicted in related cases are aware of the judgment.' 'It is a matter for them as to any steps they wish to take,' it added. Libor had been a constant — but largely unknown — presence in financial markets before it became associated with the financial crisis. It was used to determine the price of everything from interest-rate swaps to mortgages and credit card rates. Setting the reference rate was in the power of a handful of traders at a group of 16 of the world's largest banks. Each morning across the City of London at around 11 a.m., they had the task of submitting the rate at which banks were charged for lending to one another. Once submitted, the top and bottom 25% of submissions would be removed and the remaining numbers averaged. The rate was supposed to reflect banks' cost of borrowing from one another — but by making artificially higher or lower submissions, traders could affect the final rate to the benefit of their trading positions. Hayes' 2015 conviction followed a two-month London trial where he was found guilty of working with traders and brokers to game Libor. He had been a star performer at UBS in Tokyo from 2006 until 2009, when he joined Citigroup Inc. He was dismissed by the American bank less than a year later as the Libor scandal began to widen. In its decision Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court said the Hayes jury had been misdirected by a judge, who was wrong to say that a bank's commercial reasons couldn't play a part in a rate submission. It also said that 'jury directions given in later cases, including at the trial of Mr. Palombo, followed in material respects those given at the trial of Mr. Hayes.' That will give other traders hope. For the SFO, the landmark ruling is a blow to its reputation. It's a 'sharp repudiation of the way benchmark manipulation prosecutions have been conducted over the past decade,' said David Hamilton, a partner at London law firm Howard Kennedy who's primary areas include fraud and business crime. 'This decision will reverberate across financial crime enforcement.' --With assistance from Hillary Boye Doku. (Updates with additional comment from Hayes. Earlier versions of this story corrected the day of the court decision and an error in a graphic.) More stories like this are available on
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Business Standard
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Tom Hayes Libor victory puts convictions in $10 billion scandal at risk
By Jonathan Browning and Lucca de Paoli It was an era-defining prosecution for the UK's white collar crime agency. When star trader Tom Hayes was found guilty of rigging a benchmark interest rate in 2015, it set off a raft of other investigations of bankers and traders across the City of London. For the Serious Fraud Office, desperate to highlight that it could hold bankers to account, these actions marked a high-water point. On top of that, regulators made headlines by wringing global fines of almost $10 billion from a dozen banks and brokerages. Now, Hayes' success in quashing his conviction at the UK Supreme Court has upended it all and hit the SFO's reputation. It also raises questions about other convictions in the scandal. 'This result not only clears Mr. Hayes' and Mr. Palombo's names, but could also lead to convictions secured in,' other trials prosecuted by the SFO being reviewed, said Caroline Greenwell, a partner at law firm Charles Russell Speechlys. Financial crisis Hayes, who worked at UBS Group AG, was one of nine individuals convicted by UK authorities for manipulating rates tied to trillions of dollars of loans and securities around the world. With the public still dealing with the repercussions of the 2008 financial crisis – from austerity to job losses and a collapse in property prices – the cases became a high-profile emblem for the banker greed many blamed for what had happened. Ex-Barclays Plc trader Carlo Palombo, who also had his conviction overturned, addressed that very point on Wednesday, saying that the rate-rigging defendants were cast as 'dishonest greedy bankers.' 'We were accused of things that didn't make sense,' he told a press conference. 'We were caught up in this Kafka-esque nightmare.' Hayes' case was by far the most famous in the Libor scandal, but just a year after his trial, three others Barclays, Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant and Alex Pabon, were convicted of similar rigging charges involving the benchmark. Another Barclays banker, Peter Johnson, had pleaded guilty in 2014 as part of the case. A string of further convictions of traders accused of rigging the Euro interbank rate followed. The quashing of the convictions 'raises the very real spectre that all the other convictions relating' to the rate rigging cases 'are also miscarriages of justice,' Robert Newcombe, a criminal barrister, said. The SFO, which both prosecutes and investigates the most serious white-collar crime in Britain, had opposed Hayes' appeal the entire way through the process, maintaining the convictions were secured fairly. It said in a statement it will 'ensure all those convicted in related cases are aware of the judgment.' 'It is a matter for them as to any steps they wish to take,' it added. Trader power Libor had been a constant — but largely unknown — presence in financial markets before it became associated with the financial crisis. It was used to determine the price of everything from interest-rate swaps to mortgages and credit card rates. Setting the reference rate was in the power of a handful of traders at a group of 16 of the world's largest banks. Each morning across the City of London at around 11 a.m., they had the task of submitting the rate at which banks were charged for lending to one another. Once submitted, the top and bottom 25 per cent of submissions would be removed and the remaining numbers averaged. The rate was supposed to reflect banks' cost of borrowing from one another — but by making artificially higher or lower submissions, traders could affect the final rate to the benefit of their trading positions. Hayes' 2015 conviction followed a two-month London trial where he was found guilty of working with traders and brokers to game Libor. He had been a star performer at UBS in Tokyo from 2006 until 2009, when he joined Citigroup Inc. He was dismissed by the American bank less than a year later as the Libor scandal began to widen. In its decision Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court said the Hayes jury had been misdirected by a judge, who was wrong to say that a bank's commercial reasons couldn't play a part in a rate submission. It also said that 'jury directions given in later cases, including at the trial of Mr. Palombo, followed in material respects those given at the trial of Mr. Hayes.' That will give other traders hope. For the SFO, the landmark ruling is a blow to its reputation. It's a 'sharp repudiation of the way benchmark manipulation prosecutions have been conducted over the past decade,' said David Hamilton, a partner at London law firm Howard Kennedy who's primary areas include fraud and business crime. 'This decision will reverberate across financial crime enforcement.'
RTÉ News
7 days ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
Ex-trader Hayes wins appeal to overturn rate-rigging conviction
Tom Hayes, the first trader ever jailed for interest rate rigging, had his conviction overturned by Britain's top court today after a years-long fight to clear his name. The UK Supreme Court unanimously allowed Hayes' appeal, quashing his 2015 conviction of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Libor, a now-defunct benchmark interest rate. "I always believed that it would happen," Hayes, a former Citigroup and UBS star trader, told a press conference. "This wasn't a gamble for me." The court said there had been "ample evidence" for a jury to reasonably conclude Hayes had conspired with others to manipulate submissions used to compile the Libor rate - much of it coming from Hayes' own interviews with Britain's Serious Fraud Office, which brought the charges against him. The SFO claimed that Hayes conspired with others to manipulate the process for setting Libor - an estimate of the interest rate that banks could borrow from one another used to underpin trillions of dollars of contracts. However, the jury ten years ago was misdirected by the judge, who incorrectly said it was not allowed to consider commercial interests in the submissions, the Supreme Court said, and that "undermined the fairness of the trial". Hayes had argued that his conviction hinged on a definition of Libor that assumed there was a legal bar on a bank's commercial interests being taken into account when setting it. Hayes was deprived of the opportunity to have his claims fairly considered "by directions which were legally inaccurate and unfair," the Supreme said, adding that his convictions were "therefore unsafe and cannot stand". Hayes had initially received a 14-year prison sentence, later reduced to 11 years on appeal. He served five and a half years before being released on licence in 2021. Hayes became the face of the global Libor scandal and challenged his conviction at the Supreme Court along with Carlo Palombo, 46, a former Barclays trader who was found guilty in 2019 of skewing Libor's euro equivalent, Euribor. The court also quashed Palombo's conviction. He was given a four-year sentence in 2019. The SFO said that after considering the judgment it would not be in the public interest for it to seek a retrial. Libor, once a key benchmark for global finance, underpinned around $400 trillion in contracts, from mortgages to student loans. Managed by the former British Bankers' Association, it was based on daily estimates from a panel of banks on how much they expected to pay to borrow from each other. The rate was phased out in 2023. The Libor scandal led to more than $9 billion in fines for banks and brokers worldwide, including the convictions of 19 traders in Britain and the US. Hayes challenged his conviction following a landmark US court decision in 2022 that overturned the Libor rigging convictions. Caroline Greenwell, a partner at law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, said the judgment would now bring Britain in line with the United States. "This result not only clears Mr Hayes' and Mr Palombo's names, but could also lead to convictions secured in nine other criminal trials prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office... being reviewed," she said. The SFO brought charges against 20 individuals between 2013 and 2019, securing convictions against nine - seven at trial and two through guilty pleas - while 11 were acquitted.
The Sun
23-07-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Tom Hayes wins appeal to overturn Libor rigging conviction in UK
LONDON: Tom Hayes, the first trader jailed for interest rate rigging, has had his conviction overturned by Britain's top court after a lengthy legal battle. The UK Supreme Court unanimously allowed Hayes' appeal, quashing his 2015 conviction on eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating the now-defunct Libor benchmark. Hayes, a former Citigroup and UBS trader, initially received a 14-year sentence, later reduced to 11 years. He served five and a half years before being released in 2021. Alongside him, Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader convicted in 2019 for skewing Euribor, also had his conviction overturned. The court ruled that their convictions relied on a flawed legal interpretation of Libor and Euribor, which incorrectly assumed banks could not consider commercial interests when submitting rate estimates. The Libor scandal, which led to global regulatory reforms, involved banks submitting false estimates to influence borrowing costs. The benchmark was phased out in 2023. Hayes' victory follows a similar 2022 U.S. ruling that overturned convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders. - Reuters
Newsweek
09-07-2025
- Sport
- Newsweek
Yankees Reportedly Interested In Pirates Gold Glover After Jazz Chisholm Move
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The New York Yankees have been keeping tabs on third basemen around the league since Oswaldo Cabrera suffered a season-ending injury in May. According to Talkin' Yanks on X, Aaron Boone is moving Jazz Chisholm Jr. back to second base, effective immediately. With that, the Yankees have reportedly reached out to the Pittsburgh Pirates about the availability of their Gold Glove third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JULY 04: Ke'Bryan Hayes #13 of the Pittsburgh Pirates throws to first base during the game against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on July 04, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. The Seattle... SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JULY 04: Ke'Bryan Hayes #13 of the Pittsburgh Pirates throws to first base during the game against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on July 04, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. The Seattle Mariners won 6-0. More Photo byHayes was a Gold Glove winner in 2023 and has shown flashes of offensive potential during his time in Pittsburgh. Hayes' best offensive season also came in 2023, smacking 15 home runs and hitting .271 with 31 doubles. Hayes' bat has regressed over the last two seasons, and he was unable to win his second consecutive Gold Glove last season. Although he has seen a recent decline in his numbers, the Yankees have kept him on their radar as he is one of the better defensive options at the position. The Pirates currently sit at the bottom of the National League Central, and their season is continuing to spiral, likely leading them to sell at the deadline to build for the future. Hayes is signed through 2029, and with the recent uncertainty at the position, the Yankees will be well served to explore all their possibilities before committing long-term. The Yankees are within striking distance of the Toronto Blue Jays as the All-Star break inches closer, and after having a couple of months to evaluate possible options, are likely to make a move for a third baseman at the deadline. More MLB: Brian Cashman Blamed for Yankees' Brutal Bullpen Mistake
