Five ex-Barclays traders clear names as appeal court quashes rate-rigging convictions
London's Court of Appeal has quashed the convictions of five former Barclays traders jailed over benchmark interest-rate rigging, after last year's Supreme Court ruling cleared Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo.
LONDON — Five former Barclays traders jailed in Britain for plotting to rig global benchmark interest rates have won their appeal to clear their names, according to Reuters.
London’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday quashed the convictions of Philippe Moryoussef, Jay Merchant, Colin Bermingham, Jonathan Mathew and Alex Pabon.
The five were convicted of conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court between 2016 and 2019 and handed prison terms ranging from two to eight years. The Serious Fraud Office had cast them as symbols of banker greed, prosecuting them at a time of taxpayer fury over the bank bailouts that followed the 2007–2009 credit crisis.
They applied to overturn their convictions after the Supreme Court last year threw out the convictions of Tom Hayes, the former star UBS and Citigroup trader, and his ex-Barclays peer Carlo Palombo, who were prosecuted for rigging Libor — the now-defunct interbank rate — and its euro equivalent, Euribor.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission had referred the five cases back to the courts in January 2026, finding no distinguishing factor between them and the Hayes and Palombo cases.
The ruling further unpicks the SFO’s most high-profile prosecutions, which had been built around the landmark benchmark-manipulation cases of the post-crisis era.
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