Tom Hayes said that he was “ecstatic” after criminal proceedings against him in the United States were dismissed.
The 43-year-old British man, who was sentenced to 11 years in jail in the United Kingdom for manipulating the Libor rate during his tenure as a trader for UBS, is now requesting that his conviction be overturned.
This year, US courts overturned the convictions of two Deutsche Bank traders who were convicted of offenses identical to those of Hayes.
The court ruled that Gavin Black, who worked in the London office, and his New York-based colleague Matthew Connolly, who was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud in 2016, should have their convictions overturned because the US government failed to prove that any of their actions were ‘false, fraudulent, or misleading.
It means the United Kingdom is the only nation that still considers bankers engaged in the Libor scandal to be criminals.
Yesterday, as the US court published its decision to dismiss the accusations against him, Hayes said, “I’m happy to receive this result.” It nearly feels like I am in a dream.
The US Department of Justice has dismissed charges based on the identical facts, evidence, and legal case that the UK courts used to support my 11-year prison sentence, he said, calling the UK’s position “clearly ludicrous.
This alone should be sufficient cause to return these cases to the Court of Appeal in the United Kingdom, and if necessary to the Supreme Court, which has yet to consider the matter.
Hayes, a single parent with Asperger’s syndrome, was the first person to be convicted by a jury of directing a fraud conspiracy by rigging the Libor rate in August 2015.
During his trial, he stated that his coworkers called him “Rain Man” – a reference to the autistic savant portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 1988 film of the same name – “simply because I was different” and that he “didn’t grasp” many jokes and still had a superhero duvet cover at the age of 24.
In 2021, he was released from prison after serving half of his sentence.
However, he still maintains his innocence, stating that he was set up as a scapegoat by his superiors and the Serious Fraud Office, who wanted to appear to be doing something as a public opinion against bankers grew during the financial crisis.
The year after his release, Hayes told: ‘At the time, it was politically advantageous for a banker to go to prison, and I was that banker. My life was ruined by the heinous punishment I received.
“This was not a simple sentence. During that moment, I lost my mental health and my mind.
I experienced severe spells of depression. I frequently entertained suicidal thoughts.
I felt quite angry and resentful. I fought against my emotions.
After yesterday’s U.S. verdict, he continued, ‘Finally, after ten years, the prospect of extradition to the United States for doing my legitimate profession as a trader has been removed. It is time for the United Kingdom to investigate the convictions of all dealers.
Now, only the United Kingdom considers our action to have been criminal.
The Libor scandal, which peaked during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, shook the financial markets. The rate was used to price hundreds of trillions of financial goods, including mortgages and student loans.
Labor was established by asking 16 banks daily what interest rate they could borrow at and then averaging the responses.
But Hayes and other bankers were accused of producing “high” or “low” forecasts to accommodate their employers’ deals.
For their participation in the manipulation,’ banks around the world were fined more than £ 7 billion, and nine individuals were sentenced in the UK for a total of more than 50 years.
During the Hayes case in January 2015, Lord Justice Davies stated that it was “self-evident” that traders’ highball or lowball proposals violated the rules of the Libor system, even though there were no written laws at the time the offers were made.
Now discredited, Libor has been largely phased out, but Hayes wishes to clear his name.
He has requested that the CCRC, which probes miscarriages of justice, refer his case back to the Court of Appeal. The conclusion is imminent.
