The facts
On 2 October 2026 the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of five former Barclays traders – Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon and Colin Bermingham – for conspiracy to defraud by manipulating the Libor and Euribor benchmark rates. The appeal follows two similar overturns last year, which have opened the door for further challenges. The men were originally sentenced for influencing the rates that set borrowing costs on mortgages, car loans and other credit products. Merchant, 55, and Mathew, 45, both served jail terms; Moryoussef was sentenced in absentia in 2018 and never returned to the UK after France refused extradition. In statements, Mathew said the quash‑up validates a decade‑long sense of injustice, especially for his two children, while Merchant said he looks forward to moving on and seeing “those responsible” held to account. The ruling leaves only two traders – Christian Bittar and Peter Johnson – with standing convictions.
Our take
So the Court of Appeal has essentially hit the undo button on five of the most notorious Libor‑riggers, turning their criminal records into a clean slate faster than a banker can say risk‑adjusted return. It’s a fucking move that feels less like justice and more like a corporate version of you broke it, we’ll fix it… later. The irony is thick enough to choke on: these men were once painted as the face of banker greed during the 2008 crisis, the very crisis that forced governments to bail out the financial sector with taxpayer money. Now, after serving time, they walk out with their reputations scrubbed, while the system that let them rig interest rates for profit remains largely untouched. The legal precedent set by Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo’s earlier victories has clearly opened a back‑door for appeals, suggesting that the judiciary may be more interested in correcting procedural errors than in addressing the broader moral fallout of the scandal. Meanwhile, ordinary borrowers continue to shoulder the hidden costs of those manipulated rates – higher mortgage payments, pricier car loans, and a lingering distrust of the financial elite. The message to the public is unsettling: the law can be bent, twisted, and eventually erased, especially when the players have the resources to fund long‑running battles. It’s a stark reminder that while the headline‑grabbing scandals may fade, the underlying structures that enable such abuse remain stubbornly resilient. If anything, this development should fuel a louder call for systemic reform, not a celebratory toast to legal loopholes. Until the rules governing benchmark rates are overhauled, the next generation of traders will likely find new ways to game the system, confident that even a conviction can be undone with enough money and persistence. The real tragedy isn’t that five men got their records cleared – it’s that the system that allowed them to manipulate the global cost of money remains largely unscathed, leaving everyday people to foot the bill for the next round of financial shenanigans.
