Tom Hayes to ask Supreme Court to think about Libor rigging enchantment | USAEMALL.com

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Tom Hayes, the trader who went to prison for Libor interest rate rigging, has been left with a potential chance to clear his name, even as the Court of Appeal refused on Tuesday to send his case to the UK’s highest court.

Judges at the Court of Appeal in London refused to give Hayes — the first person in the world to be found guilty by a jury for conspiring to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate — permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

However, the ruling left the door ajar for the former UBS and Citigroup trader, who served five-and-a-half years in prison, to continue his legal battle, by confirming that the case raised a “point of law of general public importance”.

That decision means that although the Court of Appeal did not refer the case for appeal, Hayes can now make a direct application to the Supreme Court to hear it.

Hayes is fighting to clear his name more than a decade after the scandal erupted over Libor, which sent shockwaves through financial markets and went on to cost banks billions in fines and settlements.

He was one of nine people successfully prosecuted by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office for rigging benchmark rates. Hayes alongside other individual traders have argued they were made scapegoats.

The Court of Appeal in March upheld Hayes’ guilty verdict, saying there was “indisputable documentary evidence” that he had sought to move Libor and that he had made “frank admissions of dishonesty”.

A central part of the case was whether, as a matter of law, a Libor rate submitted by a bank was inherently “not a genuine or honest answer” if it had been “influenced by trading advantage”.

The Court of Appeal certified on Tuesday that this question amounted to a point of law of general public importance, and it was up to the Supreme Court to decide whether to consider it.

Without such certification, the case could not have proceeded further in the English courts and Hayes would have exhausted all legal routes to have his conviction quashed without resorting to Strasbourg, a process that could take years.

The SFO is also currently reviewing the Libor prosecutions, including that of Hayes, after problems with its disclosure software systems forced it to revisit old cases. The agency has had to examine whether any documents were missed in the investigation — a process that is ongoing.

Hayes is trying to have his conviction quashed alongside Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader similarly convicted of manipulating benchmark rate Euribor, who received a four-year sentence.

Hayes said he was “delighted” by the Court of Appeal’s decision. “It’s time for the UK legal system to now align with the rest of the world and for these miscarriages of justice to be corrected,” he added.

His solicitor Karen Todner said: “I am delighted to say they have certified a point of public importance to be considered by the Supreme Court.”

His legal team would “continue to do everything in our power to overturn this miscarriage of justice”.

The Serious Fraud Office said: “As a result of our investigations, nine bank traders — including Mr Hayes and Mr Palombo — were convicted for conspiracy to defraud. We note today’s decision by the Court of Appeal which refused them permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.”