Wall Street Swaps Trader Acquitted of LIBOR Misconduct (2017)

Adrian Darbishire QC and Tom Doble represented Ryan Reich, a former Barclays swaps trader, who was charged with conspiracy to defraud.

The SFO alleged that Reich had agreed with others to disregard the proper basis for setting LIBOR, by asking the submitter to take into account the bank's commercial interests when reaching its final LIBOR submissions. Reich was first tried in 2016. After a three-month trial, in which the prosecution were not required to prove any of the factual elements of the alleged agreement, the jury were unable to reach a verdict in his case, although three others were convicted. Reich was retried in March 2017, after the Court of Appeal decision in Merchant had been handed down. The jury in 2017 were therefore directed by reference to the agreement alleged in the indictment, the first jury to be appropriately directed in a LIBOR trial. After no more than three hours deliberation, the jury unanimously acquitted Reich and his co-accused.

Adrian and Tom were instructed by Ben Rose and Charles Kuhn of Hickman & Rose.

The case was reported in the media by the Financial Times, the Guardian, the BBC and Reuters.