Tom Hayes, a former broker at UBS and Citigroup, has been sentenced to 14 years for conspiracy to defraud through the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (‘LIBOR’). Assuming he does not successfully appeal, he is likely to serve up to half of that time in custody. In his sentencing remarks Mr Justice Cooke stated “The conduct involved here must be marked out as dishonest and wrong and a message sent to the world of banking accordingly.”
Gustaf Duhs, Head of the Competition and Regulatory Practice at Stevens & Bolton LLP has previously written on this topic for the International Financial Law Review (click here to read the article) and commented on Tom Hayes’s conviction and sentence:
“Clearly this is an important result for the Serious Fraud Office, and is a significant development in the prosecution of financial crime in this country. One of the stated reasons for Tom Hayes’s decision to switch from co-operating with the SFO to entering a not guilty plea at trial was his desire to have his fate decided by jurors rather than by what he called ‘a politically driven process’ at the SFO. The verdict underlines that jurors will convict for complex financial crimes and his conviction and sentence will encourage regulators operating in this and related areas. Further convictions and long sentences are anticipated."
Gustaf Duhs