UK Court of Appeal quashes ex-Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bittar's rate-rigging conviction

The UK Court of Appeal has quashed the conviction of Christian Bittar, a former Deutsche Bank trader, for rigging benchmark interest rates. The ruling was delivered on Friday. Bittar was convicted and jailed in Britain in 2018. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) brought the prosecution.

On Wednesday of the same week, the court overturned the convictions of five former Barclays traders: Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Alex Pabon, Colin Bermingham and Philippe Moryoussef. The Guardian names Merchant as Jay Vijay Merchant.

The appeals followed an earlier UK Supreme Court ruling that overturned the convictions of former UBS trader Tom Hayes and former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo. The BBC dates that ruling to July 2025. The Supreme Court found that trial judges had misdirected juries. The prosecutions concerned the Libor and Euribor benchmark rates.

According to the BBC, Bittar's case concerned Euribor. The Guardian reports that he was convicted of conspiracy to defraud. According to the BBC, Bittar followed the hearing by video link from Switzerland because he was not granted a visa.

The BBC reports that at Hayes's 2015 trial, Mr Justice Jeremy Cooke ruled as a matter of law that any attempt to influence the rates could not be lawful. Judges in later trials followed that approach. The Supreme Court later held that this was a question of fact for the jury.

The Guardian says Bittar is the eighth of nine bankers with UK fraud convictions to have them quashed. The BBC reports that 18 of 19 traders convicted in the US and UK between 2015 and 2019 have now been acquitted. According to the BBC, all US convictions were overturned in 2022.

Former Barclays trader Peter Johnson, who pleaded guilty, remains convicted. He has taken steps to appeal.

The BBC also reports it has uncovered evidence of a much larger, state-led 'rigging' of interest rates under pressure from central banks and governments, and that evidence implicating Downing Street and the Bank of England was suppressed throughout the criminal trials. The reports do not include responses from the Bank of England, the Treasury or Downing Street.

What is disputed

According to The Guardian, the SFO did not contest the Barclays traders' appeals but contested Bittar's, stating his conviction was safe.

What each side says

Bittar told the BBC: "I have waited a very, very long time for this day." The BBC quoted his wife, Caroline Bittar, as saying the family looked forward to "enjoying life with our family and friends without this shadow hanging over us".

The Guardian quoted the SFO's Jason Williams as saying: "We argued for a different outcome but respect the court's decision." Bittar's lawyer Ben Rose called it a "scandal that the SFO has consistently failed to uphold its duty to ensure that these trials are fair", according to The Guardian.

Former cabinet minister David Davis told the BBC the traders were "the victims of a scapegoating exercise".

The reports do not describe the court's reasoning, Bittar's sentence length, any retrial decision or a response from Deutsche Bank.

Analysis

The ruling adds to a series of reversals in prosecutions once presented as a response to the financial crisis. It may increase scrutiny of how the SFO conducted these trials, although the SFO says it respects the decision and remains committed to its work. Peter Johnson's pending appeal could test whether a guilty plea entered under the earlier legal approach can be revisited. Calls to release Bank of England and Treasury records may continue. Whether the BBC's allegations of state-led 'rigging' of interest rates are borne out remains unresolved. The institutions named have not responded in the reports reviewed by Vocemundi.

Produced by the Vocemundi newsroom with AI assistance.