Court of appeal quashes convictions of five ex-Barclays traders jailed for rate-rigging

The court of appeal in London has quashed the convictions of five former Barclays traders who had been jailed for rigging interest rates, overturning rulings that had stood against them for years. The decision follows a lengthy legal battle by the men to clear their names.

The former traders named in the ruling are Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon and Colin Bermingham, all of whom worked at Barclays at the time of the conduct underlying their original convictions.

The quashing of their convictions comes roughly a year after the UK supreme court overturned a separate conviction against City trader Tom Hayes, a ruling that had already raised questions about the legal basis for earlier prosecutions in the rate-rigging cases. That earlier decision is understood to have influenced the latest appeals.

The interest rate rigging scandal, which centered on manipulation of benchmark rates used across global financial markets, led to a series of prosecutions of traders at major banks in the years following the 2008 financial crisis. The latest court of appeal ruling marks a significant reversal in how some of those prosecutions are now viewed by the courts.