Ex-Barclays Traders Challenge SFO’s Fine Judgment in Libor Case

A pair of former Barclays traders, who were sentenced to a total of nine years in prison for manipulating Euribor rates, are challenging the UK police assessment of the gains they made from their criminal conduct.

Carlo Palombo and Colin Bermingham have been jailed in April over allegations they plotted with a cartel in the euro Swaps Swaps Swaps can be defined as a derivate contact composed of two parties that exchange to cash flow between two separate financial instruments.They are generally divided into two categories. This includes contingent claims (options) and forward claims, where forward contracts, swaps, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are exchanged. Commodity price, equity price, interest rate, and foreign exchange rate are common variables used as one of the cash flows in swaps upon initiation. Different Types of Swaps Swaps can be defined as a derivate contact composed of two parties that exchange to cash flow between two separate financial instruments.They are generally divided into two categories. This includes contingent claims (options) and forward claims, where forward contracts, swaps, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are exchanged. Commodity price, equity price, interest rate, and foreign exchange rate are common variables used as one of the cash flows in swaps upon initiation. Different Types of Swaps Read this Term markets to rig Libor Libor Libor stands for London Inter-bank offered rate. It is an industry-specific term which most of us would never have heard of until the "Libor scandal" became popularized in 2012. Libor is considered to be one of the most important interest rates in finance, upon which trillions of financial contracts rest. The Libor rate effects over $800,000,000,000,000 in financial deals. Banks simply cannot lend money to one another whenever they like as there is a system in place. Every day a group of leading Libor stands for London Inter-bank offered rate. It is an industry-specific term which most of us would never have heard of until the "Libor scandal" became popularized in 2012. Libor is considered to be one of the most important interest rates in finance, upon which trillions of financial contracts rest. The Libor rate effects over $800,000,000,000,000 in financial deals. Banks simply cannot lend money to one another whenever they like as there is a system in place. Every day a group of leading Read this Term, the mechanism used to set interest rates. Palombo, sentenced to four years, was former vice president of Euro rates while Bermingham, who was sentenced to five, served as Managing Director at Barclays.

In a prosecution brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), they were accused of conspiring with others at Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Societe Generale and other banks between 2005 and 2009. They allegedly created a chat group to defraud in relation to manipulating Euribor, the European interbank lending rate, seeking an edge over counterparties in a five-year rate-rigging plot, UK prosecutors said.

The parties are wide apart

The men are contesting the amount of money that the SFO is seeking to satisfy a possible confiscation order. They also claim there was no personal gain to them from accepting requests from traders to put in higher or lower submissions.

But the court ruling states they were allegedly found to have routinely helped their London-based Deutsche Bank colleague to change the rates they submitted in order to benefit their positions. However, their DB colleague had his convictions overturned by the UK court on the grounds that the jury looked at the same evidence and decided not to bring charges, citing insufficient proofs for a realistic prospect of conviction.

“The parties are wide apart and there will need to be a hearing to resolve the issues. It’s really the benefits that is the subject matter of the argument; the assets positions are broadly speaking in agreement,” a prosecutor told a London judge on Monday.

Global regulators, including FCA and its US and Swiss counterparts, have fined banks and brokers around $9 billion and charged about 30 people in a global inquiry into how banks set rates such as Libor, which determine the rates on trillions of loans and financial contracts globally.