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Libor trial: 'Ringmaster' was 'greedy', court hears | |
(35 minutes later) | |
The first criminal trial linked to the manipulation of a key interest rate, known as Libor, has begun in London. | The first criminal trial linked to the manipulation of a key interest rate, known as Libor, has begun in London. |
Former City trader Tom Hayes, 35, of Fleet in Hampshire, has been accused of acting in a "thoroughly dishonest and manipulative manner" in his alleged attempts to rig the Libor rates, the court heard. | |
The former UBS and Citigroup trader denies eight counts of conspiracy to defraud over the period 2006-2010. | |
Mr Hayes was arrested in June 2013. | |
Libor - the London Interbank Offered Rate - is an interest rate used by banks around the world to set the price of financial products worth billions of pounds. | |
Mukul Chawla QC, acting for the prosecution, said: "This case is about the dishonest rigging of bank rates for profit. | |
"The motive was a simple one: it was greed," said Mr Chawla, who described Mr Hayes as "the ringmaster at the very centre, telling others around him what to do and in a number of cases rewarding them for their dishonest assistance". | |
Jurors at Southwark Crown Court heard that Mr Hayes told investigators: "The point is, you are greedy, you want every little bit of money you can possibly get... that's how you are judged, that's your performance metric." | |
It was this greed that led to "dishonesty on an enormous scale", said Mr Chawla. | |
The court also heard that Mr Hayes had been diagnosed with mild Asperger's syndrome. | |
Mr Hayes is accused of lying about the rates that his bank was borrowing money at, thus affecting the calculation of the Libor rate. | Mr Hayes is accused of lying about the rates that his bank was borrowing money at, thus affecting the calculation of the Libor rate. |
The trial is set to last between 10 and 12 weeks. | |
The way Libor is calculated has now been changed in the wake of the rate-rigging scandal. |