Former Barclays banker Colin Bermingham found guilty of Euribor rigging
A second former Barclays banker in the Euribor rigging trial has been convicted at Southwark Crown Court.
Colin Bermingham was today found guilty of manipulating the Euribor benchmark by a majority verdict of a jury of nine men and three women. His conviction follows that of Carlo Palombo, another Barclays employee who was convicted of the same offence on Tuesday. Sisse Bohart, who worked on the bank's cash desk, was acquitted.
Bermingham's conviction came shortly after the jury indicated to the judge that they were struggling to reach a verdict.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), prosecuting, accused the three defendants of submitting "false and misleading" rates for Euribor – a benchmark banks rely on to lend each other money – to boost their trading positions in a way that prejudiced the economic interests of others.
It accused the three defendants of conspiring with former Barclays trader Philippe Moryoussef and former Deutsche Bank star Christian Bittar – whom the SFO described as the "prime movers" of the fraud – between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2009.
Bittar pleaded guilty to Euribor rigging in March last year while Moryoussef, a French national, was convicted in absentia. He remains in France.
The SFO said the convictions of Moryoussef and Bittar proved there was a conspiracy and asked the jury to decide if the three defendants were party to that conspiracy.
Palomobo, Bermingham and Bohart all denied the charges. They said they believed there was a range of rates they were allowed to choose from and that taking the bank’s commercial interests into account was common practice in the industry.
The convictions of Palombo and Bermingham were secured by the SFO in a retrial. A trial last year ended in July with the jury unable to reach verdicts on the three defendants. Another defendant, current Deutsche Bank employee Achim Kraemer, was, however, acquitted in the first trial.
Bermingham and Palombo are due to be sentenced on Monday morning.