The fall guy: Tom Hayes, Libor and a miscarriage of justice

In August 2015, Tom Hayes, then aged 34, was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment after being found guilty on eight charges of conspiracy to commit fraud when working as a yen derivatives trader in Tokyo. Hayes was alleged by the Serious Fraud Office to be the grand ‘ringmaster’ of a group of traders who sought to enrich their banks and themselves by rigging Libor, the rate charged for interbank loans. His sentence was reduced to 11 years on appeal but it is still one of the longest–ever jail sentences handed out by a British court for a white-collar crime. A subsequent court hearing ordered the seizure of assets worth more than £800,000, while legal fees consumed the remains of his personal wealth including the proceeds from the sale of his family home.

Hayes, who worked for UBS and later for Citibank, was released in February last year after five and a half years in jail, having spent part of that period in high-security prisons, on several occasions sharing cells with convicted murderers.