Former Libor trader Tom Hayes‘ application to take his case to the highest court in the land was denied by the Court of Appeal on Tuesday morning.
Permission to appeal to the Supreme Court was refused by the Court of Appeal, however, the court did certified that a point of law of general public importance was involved in their decision.
The court stated that it should be for the Supreme Court to decide whether the point of law is one which it ought to consider in the light of the consistent series of decisions of the Court of Appeal.
Former UBS and Citigroup trader Hayes (45) was sentenced in 2015 to 11 years in prison after he was found guilty of conspiring to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor. He was the first person convicted in Britain of rigging the now-discredited financial benchmark.
His case is joined with Carlo Palombo (44), a former trader at Barclays, was convicted of rigging the Euro Interbank Offered Rate, known as Euribor. He was sentenced to four years in prison back in 2019 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £725,000.
Back in March in a highly anticipated judgment, the Court of Appeal dismissed the men’s appeal to overturn their criminal conviction. Both of the men had 14 days to apply for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Speaking after this decision, Tory MP David Davis said it was “vital that the judges allow it to go to the Supreme Court.”
According to the Financial Times, the UK anti-fraud agency, the Serious Fraud Office is reviewing its Libor prosecutions, including the conviction of Hayes, after problems with the agency’s disclosure software systems forced it to revisit old cases.