The Court of Appeal has quashed the conviction of former Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bittar for conspiracy to defraud, The Guardian reported, making him the eighth person to have a rate-rigging conviction overturned. Bittar was originally convicted and jailed in 2018, having pleaded guilty, and served two years in prison.
The Serious Fraud Office contested Bittar's appeal, maintaining his conviction was safe and distinguishing his case from the five Barclays traders whose appeals the SFO did not oppose. Bittar attended the proceedings by video link from Switzerland, having not been granted a visa to appear in person. The charges related to manipulation of Euribor and the now-defunct Libor, rates used to set borrowing costs on mortgages, car finance deals and other loans, and which also underpinned financial products globally.
Earlier in the same week, the Court of Appeal also quashed the convictions of five former Barclays traders: Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon and Colin Bermingham. Merchant, Mathew, Pabon and Bermingham all served prison time, while France's refusal to extradite Moryoussef meant he was sentenced in his absence in 2018 and did not return to the UK to serve time.
The path for these appeals was opened by a July 2025 Supreme Court decision that cleared Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, alongside Palombo, a former Barclays trader. During the 2015 Hayes trial, the judge determined as a matter of law that influencing rates could never be lawful, and the eight trials that followed took the same approach.
Johnson remains the only trader worldwide still carrying a conviction for interest rate rigging, and his lawyers have confirmed he is pursuing an appeal. Euribor and Libor fed into the pricing of pensions, mortgages and savings for ordinary people, meaning the rate-rigging convictions and their reversal are directly connected to products held widely across the population.
Reporting: The Guardian, BBC
Written by Pick & Scroll News from the reporting and documents linked above.
