The Court of Appeal has overturned the fraud convictions of five former City traders previously convicted of Libor and Euribor-related offences.
The five traders, who previously worked at Barclays, had their convictions quashed on Wednesday after the Supreme Court overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo last year, two former City traders who became the face of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) scandal.
On Wednesday, the convictions of Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon and Colin Bermingham, all former Barclays traders, were overturned.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) referred cases to the court on 29 January 2026 after the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which brought the prosecutions over a decade ago, said it would not seek a retrial against Hayes and Palombo.
Lord Justice Edis said on Wednesday morning that the five former traders’ convictions will be quashed, with full reasons to be set out later.
The Court of Appeal still has yet to consider the appeal of Christian Bittar, who worked at Deutsche Bank. Bittar has argued that, despite the SFO contending his conviction is safe, his conviction should also be overturned.
One of the traders, Mathew, said: “Having this conviction quashed is not simply about correcting the record; it’s about finally having validation that this is an injustice that never should have happened.”
Tom Bushnell, partner at Hickman & Rose, representing the former traders, said today’s ruling “recognises that this error went on to be repeated in the other Libor/ Euribor prosecutions.”
SFO won’t oppose the appeals
Bushnell said the SFO “must reflect on how its repeated failure to ensure these trials were conducted fairly contributed to the collapse of its most significant series of prosecutions of the past fifteen years.”
In a statement, Jason Williams, head of division at the SFO, said: “The Supreme Court found that there was ample evidence on which a properly directed jury could have convicted Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo. We deemed it was not in the public interest to seek retrials of these two individuals.
“After carefully considering this judgment and the full circumstances we do not oppose the appeals of five individuals convicted by juries in relation to Libor and Euribor. We communicated our decision last year to each of the people affected by the judgment.
“The SFO remains committed to pursuing the most serious cases of fraud, bribery and corruption,” he added.
Barclays declined to comment.
