Court Overturns Christian Bittar's Rate-Rigging Conviction

The Court of Appeal has quashed the conviction of Christian Bittar, a former Deutsche Bank trader jailed in 2018 for manipulating the Euribor benchmark interest rate, according to the BBC. Bittar watched the ruling via video link from Switzerland, where he was living because he had not been granted a visa to attend court in person, the BBC reported.

"I have waited a very, very long time for this day," Bittar told the BBC. He added afterward: "Finally the injustice of what I and others suffered has been recognised. I am so grateful for those who stood by me through this ordeal and those who worked so tirelessly to correct it."

His wife, Caroline Bittar, said the family had lost 15 "valuable years," with their children "growing up with this injustice," according to the BBC. She said the family was looking forward to "enjoying life with our family and friends without this shadow hanging over us."

How did the Libor and Euribor rate-rigging prosecutions unfold?

The cases trace back to the 2008 financial crisis, which the BBC said sent economic shockwaves worldwide and triggered recessions, fueling a public backlash against bankers even as the financial sector received taxpayer-funded bailouts. The Libor scandal broke open in 2012, when it emerged that banks had misrepresented their positions while benchmark lending rates were being set at the height of the crisis, helping boost profits and mask difficulties, the BBC reported.

Between 2015 and 2019, nine criminal trials in London and New York produced convictions against 19 City traders, per the BBC. Tom Hayes, convicted in 2015, was the first trader jailed for rigging rates; Bittar was jailed in 2018; Carlo Palombo was jailed in 2019.

What changed in the past year?

A Supreme Court ruling last year acquitted both Hayes and Palombo, according to the BBC. That decision set off a chain of fresh appeals from other convicted traders.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of five former Barclays bankers — Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Alex Pabon, Colin Bermingham and Philippe Moryoussef — after what the BBC described as a 10-year legal struggle. Bittar's case followed days later.

Who is still convicted of rate rigging?

With Bittar's acquittal, 18 of the original 19 convicted traders have now had their convictions overturned, the BBC reported. Only former Barclays trader Peter Johnson remains convicted. Johnson, one of the original whistleblowers in the scandal, pleaded guilty on legal advice that he had little chance of winning at trial, according to the BBC. The court confirmed Johnson has now applied to appeal his own conviction.

What happens next for the Bank of England and the Treasury?

The wave of overturned convictions has prompted lawyers and senior politicians to press the Bank of England and the Treasury to release their internal records on interest-rate setting during the financial crisis, the BBC reported, amid concerns raised about a possible cover-up of central banks' and governments' own roles in the episode. No timetable for releasing those records has been set.

Read the original BBC report