Jay Merchant, a former Barclays trader, plans to sue the bank after his conviction for Libor rigging was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday. Merchant, 55, was jailed in 2016 for conspiracy to defraud over the alleged manipulation of the now-defunct interest-rate benchmark, and served more than two years of an initial six-and-a-half-year sentence before his conviction was quashed alongside those of five other former Barclays employees. He now intends to bring a civil claim against Barclays, accusing the bank of sacrificing lower-level staff to protect itself and of benefiting from lower financial penalties from regulators by casting blame on individual employees. The decisions followed a Supreme Court ruling last year in the cases of Tom Hayes, a former Citigroup and UBS trader, and Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays employee, in which the court found the trial judge's directions to the jury were legally inaccurate and unfair. With Wednesday's decision, nine convictions previously secured by the Serious Fraud Office in connection with the scandal have now been set aside; the Libor controversy erupted in 2012 and resulted in nearly $10bn in total fines from international regulators. A Barclays spokesman declined to comment.
Barclays PLCEx-Barclays trader Jay Merchant plans to sue the bank after his Libor conviction was quashed, accusing Barclays of scapegoating staff.
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Citigroup Inc.
