A sixth broker on trial over allegations he acted as a middleman for convicted trader Tom Hayes and others to fix global bank rates has been cleared on the remaining charge against him.
According to FTAdviser’s parent newspaper the Financial Times, Darrell Read, a former broker at Icap, joined five others from the firm, Tullett Prebon and RP Martin in being found not guilty of Libor manipulation.
They had faced five counts of fraud from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which alleged that they helped Hayes to manipulate the London interbank offered rate tied to the Japanese yen while he worked for UBS and Citigroup.
Hayes was found guilty last August of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud, having sought to fix the rate to benefit his own trading positions, which were tied to yen/Libor.
Along with Mr Read, nicknamed “Big Nose”, Danny Wilkinson and Colin Goodman, or “Lord Libor”, worked at ICAP, while Noel Cryan was at Tullett Prebon, and Jim Gilmour and Terry Farr were formerly with RP Martin. All were unanimously found not guilty at Southwark Crown Court in London after a 15-week trial.
It was the second UK trial forming part of a global investigation that has taken nearly eight years and involved the FCA, City of London Police, US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, among others.
David Green, director of the SFO, said that the key issue in this trial was whether these defendants were party to a dishonest agreement with Hayes.
He said: “By their verdicts the jury have said that they could not be sure that this was the case. Nobody could sensibly suggest that these charges should not have been brought and considered by a jury.”
A further trial of individuals charged with the manipulation of US dollar Libor is scheduled to begin on 15 February.
peter.walker@ft.com
