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Trader guilty over Libor rate rigging | Trader guilty over Libor rate rigging |
(35 minutes later) | |
Former City trader Tom Hayes has been found guilty at a London court of rigging global Libor interest rates. | |
He 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. | |
Each count carries a possible 10-year sentence. | |
The case was brought by the Serious Fraud Office. | |
Hayes, a star trader, rigged the Libor rates daily for nearly four years. | |
It took the jury one week to arrive at the verdicts. | |
During the trial, the court heard that manipulating Libor rates was so commonplace that an offer of a Mars bar could get it changed. | |
Hayes told a fellow trader: "Just give the cash desk a Mars bar and they'll set wherever you want." | |
Hayes's trading activities were based around movements in the Libor rate - an interest rate used by banks around the world to set the price of financial products worth trillions of pounds. | |
Even minor movements in the rate can result in bumper profits for a trader manipulating the rates. | |
Hayes confessed, saying that he did not want to be extradited to the US. | |
He claimed that the manipulation was widespread. |