Christian Bittar has rate-rigging conviction quashed
Christian Bittar, a former Deutsche Bank trader, has become the eighth person to have a conviction for rigging interest rates overturned. Bittar was convicted in 2018 of conspiracy to defraud, but the Court of Appeal quashed that conviction on Friday. He had been charged in connection with manipulating the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor.
More convictions overturned
The court also acquitted five other former traders on Wednesday: Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon, and Colin Bermingham. All five had worked at Barclays. Their acquittals came just over a year after the UK supreme court overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo. That ruling opened the door for other traders to challenge their own convictions.
Bittar said he had waited “a very, very long time for this day”. He added: “Finally, the injustice of what I and others suffered has been recognised.” The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which brought the original charges, contested Bittar’s appeal but did not contest the appeals of the five men acquitted on Wednesday. Jason Williams, head of division at the SFO, said the agency respected the court’s decision but remained committed to tackling complex fraud.
Ben Rose of law firm Hickman and Rose, who represented Bittar, called it a “scandal that the SFO has consistently failed to uphold its duty to ensure that these trials are fair”. A ninth former trader, Peter Johnson, has filed provisional grounds to appeal his conviction. His lawyer, Ellen Gallagher, said: “Peter’s fight to clear his name continues.”
