Rate-rigging convictions of five more bankers may be unsafe, says SFO

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Five more bankers convicted of rigging interest rates may be a step closer to clearing their names after the supreme court overturned a decade-old ruling against the trader Tom Hayes last month,The Serious Fraud Office said it had assessed the cases of six individuals who were charged with manipulating the euro interbank offered rate (Euribor) or the now defunct London interbank offered rate (Libor) and determined that five convictions “may be considered unsafe” after July’s ruling,Both Euribor and Libor rates affected the value of hundreds of trillions of pounds and euros worth of financial products around the world, including ordinary people’s pensions, mortgages and savings,The SFO’s investigations, which were launched 13 years ago, resulted in nine fraud convictions against senior bankers, including Hayes, who had been accused of rigging the rates,But Hayes, who was the first banker jailed over Libor rigging in 2015, had his name cleared in July after the supreme court found faults in the original trial.

The court said the original judge had given “inaccurate and unfair” instructions to the jury that found him guilty on charges of conspiracy to defraud,This meant the former banker was ultimately deprived of a fair trial,The supreme court simultaneously quashed the conviction of Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2019 for rigging Euribor,The SFO said it had a duty, as a prosecutor, to inform past defendants about any developments that could affect their convictions,“We consider that, in five instances, the circumstances that led to Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo’s appeals being upheld by the supreme court could apply to them too.

”It said the court’s concerns about directions given to the jury in the original trial may also apply to the former Barclays bankers Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant, Alex Pabon, Philippe Moryoussef and Colin Bermingham, who were each handed jail sentences of between four and eight years.“Therefore, their convictions may be considered unsafe,” the SFO said.“For one individual, Peter Johnson, we have considered the judgment in respect of his guilty plea and we consider that the conviction is safe,” it added.The SFO said it was now up to each defendant to consider whether they wanted to take their case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission or the court of appeal.Commenting on the SFO’s statement, Hayes said: “It’s taken 10 years for the SFO to acknowledge the continued failures in the Ibor trials.

As a result, many people spent years in prison.”Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionHayes raised concerns about the SFO’s view of Johnson’s case and that of a former Deutsche Bank trader, Christian Bittar.“Even now with this acknowledgment, the SFO continues to prolong the agony of Peter Johnson and Christian Bittar by refusing to accept that they too were the victims of a flawed case in law that is not acknowledged as a crime anywhere else globally,” he said.

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Police warn protesters not to travel to Epping after asylum hotel ruling – as it happened

The leader of Epping Forest district council has called for calm after the court of appeal ruled asylum seekers can stay at the Bell hotel in Essex.Councillor Chris Whitbread told Times Radio:I call for calm. There’s been peaceful protests and there’s been non peaceful protests outside the hotel.He added:We saw yesterday the government say that asylum seekers have more rights than my residents. I’m really cross with this ruling

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Court orders seizure of counterfeit underwear seller’s £90m assets

A self-styled clothing tycoon who sold counterfeit socks and pants while operating an extensive fraud ring will have all his UK assets seized after the Crown Prosecution Service won a court order to confiscate up to £90m worth of property and luxury cars.Arif Patel, 57, from Preston, Lancashire, who has been on the run since 2011, will have homes and business premises he owned taken from him after a confiscation order granted by a judge at Chester crown court on Thursday.His Ferrari 575 Superamerica will be sold at auction, as will property in Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.Patel masterminded a gang that was convicted in 2023 of one of the UK’s biggest VAT tax frauds in HMRC’s history.In a sequence of trades known as carousel fraud, he moved goods between different companies, creating false export and import records that he used to claim back large sums from the tax authorities

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Not monsters, but truly monstrous | Brief letters

All I learned from Nick Clegg’s interview (‘If the people who ran Facebook were monsters, I wouldn’t have worked there’: Nick Clegg on tech bros, Trump and leaving Silicon Valley, 23 August) is (a) his fawning homage to his former boss means that he is keeping his career options open and (b) he still doesn’t get why people despise him for his role in the coalition government. Zuckerberg, Cameron and Osborne may not be monsters, but the real harms they have wrought and their lack of any kind of accountability, responsibility or contrition are truly monstrous.Simon CollinYate, Gloucestershire A letter (22 August) perpetuates the claim that Angela Rayner is bent on selling off allotments for development. It isn’t true, as is clear from a close reading of your 5 August article, which unfortunately had the unhelpful headline “Jeremy Corbyn warns rules on council asset sales threaten allotments”. They don’t, they haven’t been changed, and sales have actually fallen slightly

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How to tax the wealthy without a wealth tax | Letters

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Reform UK council removes St George and union flags over safety fears

A Reform-led council has started to remove flags and bunting displaying the St George’s cross and the union flag after concerns were raised that they could cause accidents.Durham county council issued a statement on X on Friday saying that while the council “understand and respect the community’s desire to express national pride, celebration, or remembrance, it is important to ensure such expressions do not compromise public safety”.The council claimed it had been “left with no choice but to remove bunting” after a risk assessment found that “rope involved was so strong that, had a high-sided vehicle driven into it, the poles it was attached to could have been pulled down”.The statement said the council’s “priority remains ensuring the safety and integrity of the highway network, while being mindful of, and responsive to, the communities we serve”. It encouraged residents “to consider safer and more appropriate locations for flags or other displays that do not involve highway infrastructure and conform to all appropriate standards and regulations”

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Starmer names former Bank deputy governor as his chief economic adviser

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