The former UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX – news) and Citigroup (NYSE: C – news) trader, of Fleet in Hampshire, is on trial for eight counts of conspiracy to defraud between 2006 and 2010, all of which he denies.
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The ex- trader has been charged with eight criminal counts of conspiracy for allegedly rigging the average London interbank interest rate (the Libor rate) between 2006 and 2010. He was quoted during court on Tuesday saying he had not acted dishonestly and just wanted to do a good job.
Mr. Hayes said he went out of his way in early 2013 to convince British prosecutors that he deserved to be criminally charged. Mr. Hayes said Tuesday that he was aware of the moniker, which he believes derived from his odd social and personal traits, such as continuing to use a child’s superhero duvet cover until well into his 20s.
“It was a huge part of my identity”, Mr Hayes said, with his wife in attendance at the trial for the first time.
“Greed was the wrong word, hunger is a better word”.
Hayes, who is charged with conspiring to manipulate Libor, became increasingly emotional after his lawyer asked him to explain why he had characterized his behavior as “dishonest” in an interview with prosecutors.
He said that he was “frozen with fear” and “petrified” when he learned that he was to be charged by the US Authorities.
He said he was motivated by his determination to make as much money as possible for his bank.
Mr Hayes also said that others bankers at UBS seemed to be fixing the Libor rate for commercial gain before he arrived at the bank.
‘I could not work out what I had or had not done wrong. But when you get it right… and you see that number pop up on your screen…
Requests in connection with Libor rates were “more of a chancing my arm thing”, he told the court.
Hayes was diagnosed in May by an independent medical expert with mild Asperger’s Syndrome – a form of autism – and has been allowed to sit with his legal team and an independent intermediary while the prosecution laid out its case. The glass-enclosed security dock, where defendants more usually sit, has instead been used by journalists as it affords a better view of proceedings than the public gallery.
He said he was obsessed with financial markets and missed his ex- job and career dearly. I enjoyed working there and I liked my managers, I felt real loyalty to the bank.
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Judge Jeremy Cooke started the day by telling the jury that people with Hayes’ condition often did not detect shades of grey but tended to see the world in black and white.
