Back in August, three former Barclays traders, Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant, and Alex Pabon, who were served prison sentences for their roles in manipulating the Libor interest-rate benchmark, appealed their convictions. This was a year after former UBS trader Tom Hayes became the first person to be sentenced over Libor -rigging.
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Finance Magnates has today learned that two of the convicted Libor traders have launched attacks against the head of the Serious Fraud Squad (SFO) for presenting what they referred to as "misleading" evidence about their trials, as per a City A.M. report.
I believe that your evidence before the Justice Select Committee was misleading.
The fierce criticism comes after the director of the SFO, David Green, provided evidence to the Justice Select Committee about his agency's performance in the Libor trials. According to City A.M., Tom Hayes argued that Green's version of events was not an accurate depiction of his trial.
He said: "I believe that your evidence before the Justice Select Committee was misleading”. He added that he found Green's suggestion that the decision the jury at his trial was asked to make revolved around issues of just dishonesty to be "frankly astonishing".
Julie Pabon, the wife of convicted Alex Pabon, also stated that she was "outraged" by Green's testimony, adding that the proposition that the key issue in her husband's trial had been one of honesty and dishonesty was "untrue".
Both flagged up Green's remarks that the traders had been prosecuted because the evidence had apparently lead his agency in their direction. They claimed the agency had been far too reliant on evidence provided by UBS and Barclays instead of carrying out its own investigations.
Hayes raised questions as to the basis on which the SFO was selecting prosecution targets whereas Pabon added that the “SFO merely relied on the results of Barclays' self-serving investigation to form the basis of the criminal prosecution of my husband and others."
Hayes was found guilty of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud last year and was initially served a sentence of 14 years although this was later reduced on appeal.
Alex Pabon was sentenced for two years nine months. Jay Merchant and Jonathan Mathew were also found guilty as part of Pabon's trial, while former Barclays submitter Peter Johnson pleaded guilty at an earlier date.
"It is inappropriate for us to comment. Our investigation into Libor and Euribor manipulation continues and there are forthcoming proceedings in the court. We follow the evidence wherever and as high as it takes us”, said an SFO spokesperson.
