Libor rigging trial: three convicted

Three former Barclays employees were found guilty of rigging the Libor interest rate between 2005 and 2007.

Jay Merchant, 45, was convicted unanimously at Southwark Crown Court of manipulating the key financial rate while Jonathan Mathew, 35, and Alex Pabon, 38, were found guilty by majority verdict after a ten-week trial.

The trio will be sentenced on Thursday.

The Libor rate is used by banks to set prices of financial products.

It stands for the London inter-bank lending rate, and underpins trillions of pounds worth of loans and financial contracts for households and companies across the world.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict, after nearly two weeks of deliberation, in relation to two other defendants, Ryan Reich, 34, and Stelios Contogoulas, 44.

Barclays declined to comment.

Between 2005 and 2007, 16 banks, including Barclays, submitted daily estimates of borrowing rates to the British Banker' Association, which used them to calculate Libor.

The jury heard the ability to organise even minor movements in the rate had the potential to generate large profits for a trader.

In May it was revealed that a sixth Barclays employee, Peter Johnson, pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate the rate.

The prosecution said four traders – Jay Merchant, Alex Pabon, Ryan Reich and Stelios Contogoulas – asked Libor rate submitters, Jonathan Mathew and Peter Johnson, to put in rates that suited their trading at the daily setting of Libor.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) now has to decide whether to call a retrial for Reich and Contogoulas.

It is the third case to be brought by the SFO into Libor manipulation.

Last year Tom Hayes became the first individual to be convicted in the Libor fixing scandal, initially sentenced to 14 years in prison although that was later reduced to 11.

But in January five city brokers were cleared of helping Hayes to manipulate the Libor rate.