Eighth Rate-Rigging Conviction Quashed as London Appeals Unravel
London's Court of Appeal quashed former Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bittar's conviction for rigging Euribor on 9 October 2026. He is the eighth person to have an interest-rate-rigging conviction overturned. The Guardian
Bittar pleaded guilty in 2018 to rigging Euribor, the eurozone benchmark that helps set borrowing costs. He was convicted of conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to five years and four months in prison. Reuters
The ruling came two days after the same court quashed five separate Libor convictions. On 7 October, the court overturned the convictions of Jay Vijay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef, Alex Pabon and Colin Bermingham. All five had worked at Barclays. Reuters
Those five cases concerned Libor, the former London equivalent of Euribor. Think of both rates as reference prices for loans. Merchant was identified in court reporting as born in Kolkata. Moryoussef was identified as from France. AFP
The Serious Fraud Office, the UK agency that brought the original charges, took different positions in the two appeals. It did not contest the appeals of the five Barclays traders. It contested Bittar's appeal, stating his conviction was safe.
That distinction did not hold. The Court of Appeal in London quashed Bittar's conviction despite the SFO's opposition.
The sequence traces back to the UK Supreme Court. It overturned the convictions of former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes and former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo, opening the door for other traders to challenge their convictions.
In total, nine bankers accused of rigging Euribor or Libor were given fraud convictions. Eight have now had those convictions quashed.
One conviction remains subject to a stated challenge. Peter Johnson pleaded guilty in 2014 to conspiring to manipulate Libor. He intends to appeal his conviction as the ninth convicted trader.
The broader context here is arithmetic and procedure, not a retrial of trading conduct. Eight reversals from nine convictions leaves the SFO's Libor and Euribor trial record almost entirely unwound. Guilty pleas, Bittar in 2018 and Johnson in 2014, are now being revisited on the same basis as convictions after contested trials.
Looking at what this means for the institutions involved, the SFO's selective approach is worth attention. Non-contest in the five Barclays Libor appeals conceded the outcome. Contest in Bittar's Euribor appeal sought to draw a line between types of cases. The court did not sustain that line. Johnson's intended appeal will test whether any part of the original charging programme survives. If it does not, the episode will close with nine charges, nine convictions, and nine reversals sought or obtained in the London courts.
