Five traders convicted of rigging the benchmark interest rates that set the cost of everything from home mortgages to credit card debt walked free Wednesday after a British appeals court quashed their convictions — the latest reversal in a decade-long prosecution that has now completely unraveled. Meanwhile, the Americans who paid more on their loans so these bankers could juice their profits will never see a dime returned, and no one will face a retrial.
London's Court of Appeal overturned the fraud convictions of former Barclays employees Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant, Alex Pabon, Philippe Moryoussef, and Colin Bermingham, who had been sentenced to between 33 months and eight years in jail between 2016 and 2019. The court will issue its reasoning later, but the outcome was telegraphed months ago: In July 2025, the U.K. Supreme Court threw out the convictions of two other traders — Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo — ruling that trial judges in their cases gave inaccurate instructions to jurors. Lawyers for the remaining five argued their juries received nearly identical bad directions, making their convictions unsafe.
The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office, which spent years bringing these cases, did not oppose the appeals and will not seek retrials for any of the seven men. The SFO acknowledged the Supreme Court had found
