Rouge trader jailed 14 years over Libor rate-rigging

A London Jury found former City trader 35-year old Tom Hayes guilty on all eight charges and sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud at the London Court of rigging global Libor interest rates. He is the first individual to face a jury trial for manipulating the rate, which is used as a bench mark for trillions of pounds for borrowing and lending through out the world.

The case brought by Serious Fraud Office said Hayes set up a network of brokers and traders spanning 10 financial institutions cajoled and bribed them to help rig the Libor rates for profit.

Before graduating Hayes has spend his summer holidays working in restaurant kitchen, and this where he had ambition to become somebody in life. Hayes gained a degree in Maths engineering from Nottingham University- two years before Kweko Adeboli, the UBS trader jailed for unauthorised trade which cost the bank £1.4m.

During the trial Jurors were told that Hayes promised to pay a broker up to $100,000 to keep Libor rate as low as possible. It took the jury one week to arrive at the verdict.

Defence Barrister Neil Hawkes asked Judge to take into account the prevalence of Libor manipulation at the time , and also Tom Hayes had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum.

The trail which began on 26 May .

Hayes;s trading activities were around movements in the Libor rates at th4 London Interbank offered rate.

Many of the world’s leading banks have paid heavy penalties for tinkering with the key benchmark. Justice Cook said Hayes was the “centre and hub” of manipulation. “You succumbed to temptation because you could… to gain status seniority and remuneration,” and added Hayes action was “dishonest and wrong”.