3 guilty in UK of rigging key Libor interest rate

A London court on Monday convicted three former Barclays bank employees for manipulating a key interest rate in the third trial over the scandal.

Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew and Alex Pabon were found guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court of rigging Libor, the benchmark inter-bank lending rate and a key reference for financial products globally, between June 1, 2005 and August 31, 2007.

Another banker, Peter Johnson, had already pleaded guilty and all four will be sentenced on Thursday.

"Whilst employed by Barclays, the convicted defendants conspired with each other and other individuals....intending to prejudice the economic interests of others," the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said in a statement.

Two former colleagues of the convicted bankers, Stylianos Contogoulas and Ryan Reich, also stood trial but the jury was unable to reach a verdict in their cases. The SFO has 14 days to consider whether to ask for a retrial.

US/British citizen Merchant 45, was convicted unanimously while Brit Mathew, 35, and US Alex Pabon, 38, were found guilty by a majority decision. The two men told the court their actions were sanctioned by bosses.

"The trial in this country of American nationals also demonstrates the extent to which the response to LIBOR manipulation has been international and the subject of extensive cooperation between US and UK authorities," said SFO director David Green.

Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, is a global benchmark that is calculated daily, using estimates from banks of their own interbank rates.

It underpins the terms of $500 trillion of contracts from mortgages to the cost of corporate lending.

The men were accused of submitting unrealistic figures during the height of the 2008 financial crisis, boosting their earnings at the expense of their counterparts.

The scandal erupted in 2012 when Barclays was fined £290 million by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates between 2005 and 2009. Euribor is the eurozone equivalent of Libor.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss lender UBS, Rabobank and broker Icap have also received heavy fines over the scandal.

This was the third British trial over the scandal.

Tom Hayes, a banker who worked for UBS and Citigroup, was last year sentenced to 14 years in prison, reduced to 11 years on appeal.

A second trial resulted in the acquittal of six city workers earlier this year.

The trial of six individuals charged with manipulating Euribor will begin in London on September 4.