Court of Appeal Quashes Convictions of Five Former Barclays Traders

The UK Court of Appeal has overturned the convictions of five former Barclays traders previously found guilty of manipulating the Euribor and Libor interest rate benchmarks. The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling that identified judicial errors in jury instructions during earlier trials, which effectively deprived defendants of a fair process.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) did not contest the appeals, acknowledging that the convictions were unsafe in light of the legal precedents set by the Supreme Court in 2025. This development marks the conclusion of a decade-long legal effort to challenge the original fraud prosecutions related to global interest rate benchmarks.

The UK Court

The reversal of these convictions represents a significant setback for the SFO’s historical enforcement strategy regarding financial market manipulation. The agency’s inability to secure these convictions raises questions regarding the integrity of past judicial proceedings and the long-term viability of similar high-profile financial crime cases.

Legal scrutiny continues as the SFO prepares to contest a separate appeal from a former Deutsche Bank trader who pleaded guilty in 2018. The outcome of that case will determine the final scope of the judicial review into the Libor and Euribor prosecution era.