UK: Second ex Barclays banker convicted in London Euribor re-trial

A second former Barclays banker has been convicted of conspiring to manipulate global Euribor interest rates, bringing to nine the number of people found guilty in six rate-rigging trials.

The jury of nine men and three women on Thursday found Colin Bermingham, a 62-year-old veteran banker, guilty by a majority verdict after a two-month re-trial brought by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) at Southwark Crown Court.

Co-defendant Carlo Palombo, a 40-year-old Anglo-Italian former derivatives trader, was convicted by a majority verdict on Tuesday while Sisse Bohart, a 41-year-old Dane, was acquitted. She was not in court to hear her verdict.

Euribor is the average interest rate at which European banks are prepared to lend to one another and is based on daily submissions by a number of “panel banks”.

The Serious Fraud Office, which brought the prosecution, had alleged that between 2005 and 2009 the trio of former Barclays employees had conspired with two star traders at Deutsche Bank and Barclays, Christian Bittar and Philippe Moryoussef, and others to fix the rate.