Libor-rigging Barclays trio found guilty and face jail

Three disgraced Barclays bankers face jail for rigging Libor to make huge profits, in a scheme likened to “nobbling” a horse in the Grand National.

US traders Jay Merchant, 45, and Alex Pabon, 38, and London-based Jonathan Mathew, 35, manipulated the interest rate to make “enormous” profits for the bank.

They were rewarded with large bonuses because of their success, between June 2005 and August 2007, taking requests from traders in the US to fix the rate.

After a two-month trial at Southwark crown court, the trio of bankers were all found guilty.

But the jury was unable to reach verdicts on two co-defendants, US trader Ryan Reich, 34, and Greek London-based banker Stylianos Contogoulas, 44.

Judge Anthony Leonard QC today lifted reporting restrictions to allow the guilty verdicts to be delivered, as he ended the deadlock on the remaining two defendants. Merchant, Pabon and Mathew all now face lengthy jail sentences.

The Libor rate, a benchmark for trillions of dollars of trades and contracts, has been the focus of a massive fixing scandal, leading to huge fines for major banks including Barclays, UBS and RBS.

Financial regulators described the scam “heads I win, tails you lose”. Barclays paid £290 million in fines over Libor in 2012, costing then-boss Bob Diamond his job.

Prosecutor James Hines QC told the jury: “They were driven by money — their goal was to make more profit on trading. Honesty and integrity were matters which were entirely expendable.”