The fight for justice in the City’s own Post Office scandal
A seismic ruling that cleared traders of manipulating the Libor rate has prompted calls for a deeper inquiry
Tom Hayes is angry.
asserted
Hayes → clear → inquiry
“It’s been a quarter of my life,” he says.
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he → say → life
“I’m now nearly 47.
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I → ’m → ?
I was 32 when I was arrested.
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I → arrest → ?
Ever since, I have been fighting to clear my name.”
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I → fight → name
Not just Hayes, the former UBS trader who served five-and-a-half years in jail after being wrongly convicted of manipulating the Libor interest rate, used to fix borrowing costs on personal loans and mortgages.
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who → serve → loans
Last week, he was joined by five former Barclays traders, Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon and Colin Bermingham, who have had their convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal in London.
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convictions → join → London
The same court has also allowed the appeal of ex-Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bittar for conspiracy to defraud.
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court → allow → conspiracy
Another, Peter Johnson, convicted in October 2014, is still battling.
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Another → convict → October
Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader sentenced to four years in prison in 2019 for rigging Euribor, the eurozone version of Libor, also had his conviction quashed on the same day as Hayes, in July last year.
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conviction → sentence → July
In all, 37 traders were prosecuted here and in the US for manipulating Libor and Euribor.
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traders → prosecute → Libor
Each day in London, banks would submit an estimate of the cost of borrowing cash from other banks and an average would be taken to Libor benchmark.
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average → submit → benchmark
A similar process occurred to set Euribor,
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process → occur → Euribor
Ironically, while the campaign for justice carries on, Libor has been scrapped.
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Libor → carry → justice
Euribor still operates.
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Euribor → operate → ?
The desks making the submissions would look at the interest rates at which other banks were lending, how they differed from each other by one hundredth of a percentage point or two, and suggest a rate from within that range.
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they → make → range
The traders would ask their desks to go high or low — depending on what would benefit their banks’ trades.
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what → ask → trades
It was this, said prosecutors, that was tantamount to conspiracy to defraud.
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that → say → conspiracy
But the traders maintain they were breaking no rules and everything they did was known by their employers, the regulators, which in London, meant the Bank of England.
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which → maintain → England
There are suggestions that even governments played a part, encouraging them to reach a figure that would help instil consumer confidence.
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that → be → confidence
Compared with the Post Office innocents this is narrower in numbers, but its ramifications are arguably broader
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ramifications → compare → numbers
So far, only one of the Barclays acquitted, Merchant, has declared his intention to sue his former firm.
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one → acquit → firm
Others may follow.
uncertain
Others → follow → ?
Hayes’s case in the US against UBS — he is seeking $400 million in damages — is progressing.
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he → seek → damages
Compared with the scale of the Post Office innocents, this is narrower in numbers directly affected but its ramifications are arguably broader.
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ramifications → compare → numbers
Sir David Davis, the Tory MP who has fought relentlessly on the traders’ behalf, as he has done for the Post Office sub-postmasters, says: “While the Post Office may be the widest miscarriage of justice this country has seen, this one is the deepest.”
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one → fight → justice
Here, seemingly, was a bunch of unscrupulous bankers raking in company profits and their bonuses from exploiting a figure that affected the everyday lives of ordinary people.
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that → rake → people
Its exposure, coming so soon after the 2008 crisis, seemed to confirm everything that was wrong with the City, with the banking industry, the most flagrant example of arrogant City slicker behaviour, playing fast and loose with the household finances of millions.
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industry → come → millions
A relentless campaign of redress
Hayes was the first to be convicted and to have his conviction overturned.
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conviction → convict → redress
Rather than disappear quietly, however, he has maintained a relentless campaign of redress and has encouraged and inspired the rest.
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he → disappear → rest
On his acquittal, Pabon singled out Hayes for special praise, saying he “refused to let it go and pushed this through for all of us”.
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it → single → us
What they all went through was hell, says Hayes.
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Hayes → go → What
“Everyone — the media, politicians — said terrible things about us.
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Everyone → say → us
“A then regulator made a speech that was so biased it almost caused my trial to collapse and a new jury to have to be sworn in.”
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jury → make → speech
Even now, they remain outcasts in the City.
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they → remain → City
“I had a criminal record until recently,” says Hayes.
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Hayes → have → record
“I’m persona non grata in the banking world and it’s the same for the others.
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it → ’m → others
None of us have gone back into the City.”
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None → go → City
While he was in jail, Hayes was hit by the Financial Conduct Authority seeking to ban him from the City for life.
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Hayes → hit → life
“How could someone in a maximum-security prison [he was serving alongside terrorists and the Hatton Garden heist gang], who was restricted to receiving four visits a month, whose mail was censored, be a threat to the investing public?” he laughs.
uncertain
he → serve → public
…and 29 more, not listed.
The Aporia
