Rate-rigging convictions of five bankers referred to UK appeals court
Five more former bankers convicted of rigging interest rates will be given a fresh chance to clear their names, after the supreme court overturned a decade-old ruling against the trader Tom Hayes last year.The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) said on Thursday that it had referred the ex-City traders’ convictions back to the court of appeal.The men were jailed between 2016 and 2019 on charges of manipulating the euro interbank offered rate, Euribor, or the now defunct London interbank offered rate, Libor.The Euribor and Libor rates affected the value of ordinary people’s pensions, mortgages and savings, as well as hundreds of trillions of pounds and euros worth of financial products around the world.Nine bankers accused of rigging the rates were given fraud convictions, including Hayes.
But Hayes had his name cleared in July 2025 after the supreme court found faults in the original trial.Those included the judge giving “inaccurate and unfair” instructions to the jury that found him guilty on charges of conspiracy to defraud.Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader sentenced to four years in prison in 2019 for rigging Euribor, had his conviction quashed on the same day.Now the cases of Alex Pabon, Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef and Colin Bermingham have been referred by the CCRC after the Serious Fraud Office, which brought the original charges, found that their convictions “may be considered unsafe” in the wake of the ruling over Hayes and Palombo.Pabon, Merchant and Mathew were convicted of conspiracy to defraud in 2016 at Southwark crown court and were given prison sentences ranging from two to six-and-a-half years.
In applications to the CCRC in August, they argued that the trial judge took legal directions that were found to be wrong, and that this undermined the safety of their convictions.Moryoussef was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to eight years in prison, while Bermingham was convicted in 2019 and given a five-year sentence.They argued that their cases had the same errors as the supreme court found with Palombo.“After analysing the submissions in all five cases … the CCRC has determined there is no distinguishing factor between these cases and the cases of Mr Hayes and Mr Palombo, and the jury misdirection and legal errors have undermined the safety of all the convictions,” the CCRC said.Cases that are referred by the CCRC then go to the court of appeal to decide whether the conviction is unsafe.
In October, Hayes said he was suing his former employer, Swiss bank UBS, for $400m (£300m), accusing it of pinning the blame on him for the Libor scandal.He claimed he was a “hand-picked scapegoat” for the scandal, which led to fines of almost $10bn for a dozen banks and brokerages.Hayes, who spent five and a half years of an 11-year term in prison, alleged that UBS misled US authorities and called him an “evil mastermind” behind the scandal.
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Carlos Alcaraz beats Alexander Zverev in epic five-set Australian Open semi-final – as it happened
A weary Alexander Zverev described the decision to allow a medical timeout for a cramping Carlos Alcaraz in their epic Australian Open semi-final as “bullshit”, but didn’t want the matter to take the focus off the quality of Friday’s memorable encounter.The German failed to capitalise on breaks in the second and fifth sets, as the world No 1 rallied from his physical ailments to win 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4) 7-5 in five hours and 27 minutes.Tournament rules allow medical timeouts for injuries but not muscle cramps. However, the decision is left to the attending physio and doctor.Alcaraz clutched at the inside of his right groin late in the third set and was moving gingerly – indicating either cramp or a more severe injury – and was allowed a medical timeout after seeking attention from the physio
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American stars meet at sold-out Madison Square GardenStevenson rises to 140lb in bid for title in fourth divisionLópez enters in rare underdog role that suits his historyWhen Teófimo López and Shakur Stevenson come together on Saturday night inside the big room at Madison Square Garden, a junior welterweight title and a claim to American fistic supremacy will be on the line before a sold-out crowd of more than 20,000 spectators.Two of the finest US-born fighters of their generation are set to collide in a delicious matchup that pits volatility against control, power against precision, chaotic ambition against measured discipline. Both men arrive as world champions across multiple weight classes, both are 28 and prime, and both view the contest as a gateway to pound-for-pound recognition and the untold opportunities it confers.López (22-1, 13 KOs) enters as the WBO and lineal champion at 140lb, making the fourth defense of the belt he seized with a masterclass performance against Scotland’s Josh Taylor in 2023. Stevenson (24-0, 11 KOs), already a three-division world champion from 126lb through 135lb, moves up in pursuit of a fourth divisional title and his most high-profile victory to date
‘A very Italian problem’: inside the fight against the mafia and corruption at the Winter Olympics
Early on the morning of 8 October, the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri in Belluno put out a press release announcing three arrests, in the culmination of a year-long investigation they called “Operation Reset”. Two of the three were brothers, were both known members of the notorious SS Lazio Ultras, the Irriducibili, it was stated in the release, and had boasted of having personal ties to former boss Fabrizio Piscitelli, who was murdered in 2019. The crimes the brothers had been arrested on suspicion of had not been committed in Rome, but 400 miles north, in the small alpine ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, high in the Dolomites, and home, for the next three weeks, to the Winter Olympics.The brothers are still awaiting trial, but the local public prosecutor’s office has alleged that they were running an operation in three phases. The first was taking control of the drug distribution network in Cortina, the second was to take control of three local nightclubs, and the third was to extort the local council into awarding the construction contracts for the works being done for the Games
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