The Court of Appeal on Wednesday quashed the convictions of five ex-Barclays traders—Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon, and Colin Bermingham—after a landmark ruling last year cast doubt on the validity of their guilty verdicts. Mathew, Merchant, and Pabon were convicted a decade ago of rigging the now-defunct London interbank offered rate (Libor), a key benchmark underpinning trillions of dollars in financial contracts. Moryoussef and Bermingham were found guilty of manipulating the euro equivalent, Euribor, in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Wednesday’s ruling follows the UK Supreme Court’s July 2025 decision to quash the conviction of Tom Hayes, the former UBS and Citigroup trader who became the first to be found guilty by a jury for Libor rigging. The Supreme Court found that directions given to the jury in 2015 were “inaccurate and unfair,” depriving Hayes of a fair trial. Hayes spent five-and-a-half years in prison. The UK’s highest court also quashed the conviction of former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo for manipulating Euribor.
Lord Justice Edis said the Supreme Court had identified a legal error in Hayes’ trial that was “directly replicated” in the ex-Barclays bankers’ cases. Bermingham had been convicted in the same trial as Palombo on the same jury directions. The five cases were referred to the court in January by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The UK Serious Fraud Office, which prosecuted the cases, did not contest the appeals.
Source: Financial Times Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing