Trader jailed for 14 years over Libor rate-rigging

Former City trader Tom Hayes has been found guilty at a London court of rigging global Libor interest rates.

He was sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud.

The 35-year old is the first individual to face a jury trial for manipulating the rate, which is used as a benchmark for trillions of pounds of global borrowing and lending.
Many of the world's leading banks have paid heavy financial penalties for tampering with the key benchmark.

The jury found Hayes guilty on all eight charges of conspiracy to defraud.

Justice Cooke said Hayes was the "centre and hub" of the manipulation.

He said: "You succumbed to temptation because you could... To gain status, seniority and remuneration," adding that Hayes' actions were "dishonest and wrong".

The case was brought by the Serious Fraud Office, which said Hayes set up a network of brokers and traders spanning 10 financial institutions and cajoled or bribed them to help rig Libor rates for profit.
During the trial, jurors were told that Hayes promised to pay a broker up to $100,000 to keep the Libor rate "as low as possible".
It took the jury one week to arrive at the verdicts.

Mr Hawes also said that managers and senior managers at Hayes' bank knew of, and in some cases condoned, Libor manipulation.

Hayes, a former star trader originally from Fleet in Hampshire, rigged the Libor rates daily for nearly four years while working in Tokyo for UBS, then Citigroup, from 2006 until 2010.

Citigroup says it has no comment about the verdicts. UBS has said it was not a party to the case.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33763628

Another scummy bankster gets his. Hopefully he'll have his bosses rooming with him in the near future.