Tom Hayes, 44, a former trader at Citigroup and News, received one of the harshest prison sentences ever for white-collar crime in UK history in 2015 when he was sentenced to 14 years in prison, which was later reduced to 11 years on appeal.
The Court of Appeal was tasked with hearing Carlo Palombo’s case, 45, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2019 for manipulating the Euribor interest rates. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) looks into possible injustices.
Their legal representatives recommended the judges follow the path taken by a US appeals court, which in January 2022 overturned the convictions of two former traders for Deutsche Bank for manipulating the Libor rate.
The appeals were rejected by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which claimed that they “reveal no new reason for questioning the approach and findings of this court on several prior occasions.”.
Hayes and Palombo have fourteen days to ask for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court after three justices dismissed the appeals today.
“I’m a fighter, not a quitter,” Hayes declared outside the court, describing the ruling as a “shock” and announcing that he would be bringing his case to the UK’s highest court. We’re still not giving up.