Libor ‘fall guy’ Tom Hayes will be taking his fight to clear his name to the Court of Appeal following a decision today by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Hayes, who thanked his legal team for their ‘tenacity’, described the announcement as ‘a step closer to vindication and justice for all’ while his solicitor Karen Todner of Karen Todner Ltd, said she was ‘delighted’ at the decision.
Hayes was convicted of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud by 'rigging' the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (Libor) in 2015. He was the first individual convicted after a trial of offences in connection with the manipulation of Libor, the average daily interest rate submitted by banks. Eight others were convicted of Libor or Euribor manipulation.
During that time, Hayes, a financial market trader, was portrayed as the ‘face’ of the traders looking to profit from manipulating Libor.
Hayes, who has always maintained his innocence, previously appealed against his conviction and sentence and the Court of Appeal reduced his sentence from 14 to 11 years. He served five and a half years in prison and was released in 2021.
Last year Hayes had a US criminal case in relation to Libor manipulation dismissed by a New York judge. The court said there was ‘no provable case’ after the convictions of two other traders were overturned.
He applied to the CCRC in 2017. His representatives provided CCRC with extensive submissions and several thousand pages of information, which were subject to detailed examination by CCRC staff. Further submissions were provided subsequently.
In light of the US developments, the CCRC invited Hayes’ legal representatives to make additional submissions with regard to his convictions in the UK.
The CCRC has concluded that there is a real possibility that the Court of Appeal will prefer the legal approach to the definition and operation of the Libor rules taken by the US court and overturn Hayes’ conviction.
Hayes said: ‘I am pleased that the commission feels that there is a real possibility that the case in law used in our cases will be revised by either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court. Such a revision would merely bring the UK into line with the law used in the rest of the world. It remains a tragedy that so many lives were ruined by the false narrative propagated from 2012 when various enquiries were lied to by multiple powerful institutions.'
Thanking his legal team, he said 'Karen Todner has never allowed my spirits to flag even when I was close to giving up.'
Todner said: ‘Tom Hayes and others have been used by the government and senior bankers as a scapegoat. The result is that Tom Hayes’ conviction is a miscarriage of justice which demands immediate correction. It has been a lengthy and arduous road back to the Court of Appeal but I’m glad we will finally achieve the rehearing he deserves.’
An SFO spokesperson said: 'All our prosecutions are based on evidence and the applicable law. We stand ready to support the Court of Appeal as it considers this referral.'
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