Senior Tory MP David Davis spoke in the House of Commons today, raising a point of order regarding the LIBOR trials that “highlighted potential miscarriages of justice and failures of the state in relation to the LIBOR scandal.”
Referring to the forthcoming book Rigged by Andy Verity, who has reported extensively on the LIBOR scandal, Davis said: “next week the BBC’s economics correspondent will publish a book and release whistleblower testimony, telephone recordings, emails, and documentary data on a number of serious miscarriages of justice in the LIBOR scandal that emerged in 2012.”
“It will show that British and US authorities covered up state involvement in LIBOR rigging and the scapegoating of 37 low and middle-ranking banking, some of whom spent years in jail,” Davis said.
“In this evidence, there’s a prima facie case to believe that state agencies coerced individuals into perjury that led to convictions. I will write to the Metropolitan Police asking them to investigate any potential perjury,” referring to the “expert witnesses” that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) used to secure convictions against Tom Hayes and other traders. These witnesses were Saul Haydon Rowe, who falsely presented himself as an expert, and John Ewan, who appears to have lied under oath.
“I am also greatly concerned,” Davis said “that the Treasury Select Committee may have been misled by state agencies about the knowledge and involvement of the state in setting false rates. I have written to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee suggesting the Committee might want to look into this issue.” Verity’s work shows that the Bank of England, as well as banks such as Barclays, deliberately submitted false rates and therefore misled Parliament.
Evidence is growing to suggest that the LIBOR traders were wrongly convicted. The United Kingdom is the only jurisdiction in the world to consider the practice a crime, after the United States overturned all convictions for LIBOR “rigging.” There are also serious question marks over the safety of the convictions and whether the traders received a fair trial.
Lord Mackay said: “the fundamental point is the fairness of the trial […] it is a question of showing that there was in the trial a failure to disclose matters which were contrary to or undermining the prosecution case.” He added, “Of course there is also the question of law about whether the whole thing is an offence […] I’m concerned there’s a substantial question there.”
Tom Hayes, who was convicted of “rigging” LIBOR rates and spent over five years in prison, told Disruption Banking: “I am pleased that thanks to the investigative journalism of Andy Verity, the real story about false LIBOR submissions is coming to light. I hope that the relevant parties who were misled at the time can now take the appropriate action and criminal cases returned to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).”
“UK law on this matter is a global outlier and needs urgent attention.”
Author: Harry Clynch
