Former ICAP employees Darrell Read and Colin Goodman are among the brokers that stand accused of helping jailed ex-trader Tom Hayes to manipulate the benchmark rate as the second trial in the Libor investigation commenced yesterday.
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The Libor rate is a rate used to calculate trillions of pounds worth of financial deals between banks.
He told the court that the motivation of the defendants was “simple – it was financial”.
The SFO, whose case will be led by veteran counsel Mukul Chawla, alleges the men dishonestly agreed to procure Libor rates that would benefit the trading of people such as Hayes, deliberately disregarding how rates should be set and prejudicing the economic interest of others.
“That cheating enabled the trader to make literally millions of pounds for the banks”, said Chawla.
The former trader at Citigroup and UBS was sentenced to 14 years in prison for moving the Libor rate.
Hayes, a former Tokyo-based derivatives trader, was convicted on August 3 of conspiring with others to manipulate Libor, the London interbank offered rate, between 2006 and 2010. The prosecution will wrap up its case in mid-November.
Hayes would figure prominently in the trial but was not in the court, Mr Chawla told the jury.
Six financial brokers, including a New Zealand resident, accused of trying to fix an global bank lending rate helped a trader “cheat” as part of a “dishonest scheme”, a court has heard. Goodman was known as “Lord Libor” while Wilkinson was known as “Sarge”.
Meanwhile, Mr Wilkinson was senior to the other ICAP brokers, and is alleged to have been aware of the attempted manipulation, as well as charging Mr Hayes fees for the services and passing that on to his colleagues.
Former ICAP broker Darrell Read leaves Southwark Crown Court in London, Britain October 06, 2015.
Mr Chawla said Mr Cryan was an “enthusiastic participant” in the conspiracy, who was “handsomely rewarded” for his role in the scheme.
The prosecution alleges Mr Read, Mr Goodman and Mr Wilkinson conspired with at least seven others, including Mr Hayes, to rig Libor between August 2006 and December 2009.
The Serious Fraud Office charged the men with a total of five counts of conspiracy to defraud by trying to move the rate linked to the Japanese yen.
Farr also faces a second count of conspiracy between December 2009 and September 2010 with Hayes and others.
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The six defendants deny the charges against them.
