Summary: Three more former Barclays traders were handed guilty verdicts in the infamous Libor case.
A jury Monday found three former traders of Barclays Plc guilty of Libor manipulation nearly four years after the bank paid millions of dollars in fines for rigging the key benchmark rate of over $350 million in securities.
The investigation found that several Barclays employees fixed the London interbank rate between June 2005 and August 2007. Alex Pabon, 38, Jay Merchange, 45, and Jonathan Mathew, 35, were convicted of the conspiring with fellow employees. The verdicts against Stylianos Contigoulas, 44, and Ryan Reich, 34, were unable to be decided by the jury. The main Libor submitter, Peter Johnson, was found guilty of manipulating the rate at the end of 2014.
Read Lawsuit Filed Against US Banks Regarding Libor.
The fine imposed on Barclays four years sparked a global scandal of the niche rate for brokers and traders to banker greed. Barclays was the first to settle, resulting in Chief Executive Officer Bob Diamond losing his job and the financial industry being punished with $9 billion in penalties.
See Barclays Bank Fights to Restore Its Reputation.
Prosecutors used emails and testimony to link the traders to a conspiracy plan that profited the bank and themselves financially. It took the jury 10 days to reach decisions.
Serious Fraud Office Director David Green said, “The trial in this country of American nationals demonstrates the extent to which the response to Libor manipulation has been international. The key issue in this case was dishonesty.”
Former UBS Group AG and Citigroup Inc. trader Tom Hayes was the first to be convicted of a jury in Libor cases last August.
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To learn more about the Libor cases, read Class Action Suit Filed Against 12 Major Banks by Homeowners over Libor Manipulation.
Photo: bloomberg.com