Former City of London trader Christian Bittar has successfully challenged his 2018 conviction for conspiracy to defraud, becoming the eighth person to have such a ruling quashed. This legal development follows the acquittal of five other former bankers just days prior.
Bittar, who formerly worked for Deutsche Bank, was sentenced to prison for manipulating the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor). Along with other convicted traders, he was accused of influencing benchmark interest rates—including the now-defunct Libor—which directly impacted pensions, mortgages, and various global financial products valued in the hundreds of trillions. I am so grateful for those who stood by me through this ordeal and those who worked so tirelessly to correct it.”. Mortgages and savings, as well as hundreds of trillions of pounds and euros worth of financial products around the world, the Euribor and Libor rates affected the value of ordinary people’s pensions.
The recent string of acquittals began shortly after the UK Supreme Court overturned decade-old rulings against former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes and former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo. The Supreme Court found that trial judges had provided “inaccurate and unfair” instructions to juries, which “deprived” the men of a fair trial. These rulings paved the way for other traders to contest their own convictions.
On Wednesday, the court overturned the convictions of five former Barclays employees: Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon, and Colin Bermingham. While the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) did not contest the appeals of these five men, it did argue that Bittar’s conviction remained sound.
Following the court’s decision, Bittar expressed relief, stating he had waited a long time for the injustice to be recognized and thanked those who supported him. His legal representative, Ben Rose of Hickman and Rose, described the SFO’s consistent failure to ensure fair trials as a “scandal.” Finally, the injustice of what I and others suffered has been recognised.
Jason Williams, a divisional head at the SFO, stated that while the agency respects the court’s decision regarding Bittar, it had argued for a different outcome. The SFO maintained that it remains committed to investigating complex fraud and corruption.
Meanwhile, the legal battle continues for Peter Johnson, the ninth trader convicted in the rate-rigging scandal. Johnson, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2014, is actively seeking to overturn his conviction. His lawyer, Ellen Gallagher of Vardags, confirmed he has already filed provisional grounds for an appeal. “As the court made clear today, he has taken the first steps towards that appeal by filing provisional grounds.”.
