Three disgraced Barclays bankers face jail today for rigging Libor to make huge profits in a scheme likened to “nobbling” a horse in the Grand National.
US traders Jay Merchant, 45, and Alex Pabon, 38, as well as London-based Jonathan Mathew, 35, manipulated the interest rate to make ”enormous” profits for the bank.
They were rewarded with large bonuses because of their successes, between June 2005 and August 2007, taking requests from traders in the US to fix the rate.
Following a two-month trial at Southwark crown court, the trio of bankers were all found guilty, while the jury was unable to reach verdicts on two co-defendant, US trader Ryan Reich, 34, and Greek London-based banker Stylianos Contogoulas, 44.
Judge Anthony Leonard QC today lifted reporting restrictions to allow the guilty verdicts to be delivered, as he ended the deadlock on the remaining two defendants.
Merchant, Pabon, and Mathew, will all now face lengthy jail sentences for the their role in the rigging scandal.
The Libor rate, which is used as a benchmark for trillions of dollars of trades and contracts, has been the focus of a massive fixing scandal, leading to huge fines for major banks including Barclays, UBS and RBS.
Financial regulators described the scam “heads I win, tails you lose” and hit Barclays with a £284.4 million fine - the biggest in UK banking history.
Prosecutor James Hines QC told the jury: “They were driven by money – their goal was to make more profit on their trading. Honesty and integrity were matters which were entirely expendable.”
