Receive free Tom Hayes updates
We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Tom Hayes news every morning.
Tom Hayes, the former trader jailed for conspiring to rig the benchmark Libor interest rate, is to be given another chance to appeal against his conviction after a review by the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice.
Hayes, who worked for UBS and Citigroup, was found guilty in 2015 of multiple charges of conspiracy to defraud and served five and a half years in prison. But the Criminal Cases Review Commission said on Thursday that there was a “real possibility” the Court of Appeal could overturn his conviction.
Prosecutors had described Hayes during his trial as the “ringmaster” of a plot to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate, which before its recent phasing out underpinned financial contracts around the world.
The Libor scandal sent shockwaves through global markets more than a decade ago, and banks went on to pay out billions in fines and settlements. Yet traders who were individually accused and convicted, including Hayes, have argued they were made scapegoats.
Hayes, a former yen derivatives trader nicknamed “Rainman” because he was deemed awkward and obsessed with numbers, claimed during his trial that he was only trying to do his job well, and did everything with the knowledge of his superiors.
Hayes was a star derivatives trader at UBS in Tokyo from 2006 until 2009. He was subsequently poached by Citigroup, which let him go 10 months later as the Libor scandal gathered pace.
The commission’s decision on Thursday follows a court judgment in the US last year that overturned convictions of two former Deutsche Bank traders — Matthew Connolly and Gavin Black — who were convicted in similar circumstances, leading all charges against Hayes in the US to be dropped.
Hayes, who has described his time in prison in England as “traumatic”, said he was “delighted” by his chance to appeal. “It is now time for all those convicted of Libor rigging to get justice,” he added in a statement. “The scars of our experiences remain today and continue to plague us.”
The Serious Fraud Office said in a statement: “All our prosecutions are based on evidence and the applicable law. We stand ready to support the Court of Appeal as it considers this referral.”
Hayes was initially sentenced to 14 years, which was the toughest sentence handed down in the UK for financial fraud.
The appeals court later reduced his sentence to 11 years but declined to reverse the conviction. Prisoners in England generally serve half their term and Hayes was released in 2021.
Helen Pitcher, who chairs the CCRC, said its decision followed a “lengthy and complex investigation”. She said the Court of Appeal should “clarify” whether the “right legal approach” was taken in Hayes’ case.
Ben Rose, a lawyer who represents Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader who was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in 2019 for manipulation of Euribor, another benchmark, said he intended to apply to the commission following its decision on Hayes.
Rose, founder of law firm Hickman & Rose, argued that other individuals he represents were also convicted “based on a process which was both legally flawed and procedurally unfair”.