Court told: Failure to spot fixing is like missing nudists on a beach
The possibility that Barclays bosses did not notice the manipulation of Libor submissions is the equivalent of them failing to spot nudists on a beach, a lawyer said yesterday.
Adrian Darbishire, a lawyer for ex-trader Ryan Reich, said in his closing arguments that it was more likely executives didn’t think anything was wrong with what was going on.
The court also heard it was expected that banks take their own interests into consideration when submitting Libor rates.
Read more: Accused ex-Barclays banker kept in the dark about any supposed Libor conspiracy by boss
“There is nothing wrong with having a commercial bias,” Darbishire argued, comparing Libor submissions to submitting an insurance claim, “You are entitled to err on the side that benefits you.”
Darbishire labelled the Serious Fraud Office’s case against the men as “self-contradictory" and presented in a “misleading and unfair way”.
Jonathan Mathew, Alex Pabon, Stylianos Contogoulas and Jay Merchant stand accused along with Reich and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Read more: Libor charges brought in the US against two former Deutsche Bank traders
Judge Anthony Leonard is now expected to sum up the case for the jury, and they are set to begin deliberations either tomorrow or Monday.