Tom Hayes ordered to pay £878, 806 confiscation order
23 March, 2016 | News Releases
Tom Hayes, the first individual to be convicted after trial for the manipulation of LIBOR, has been ordered to pay a confiscation order of £878,806 today at Southwark Crown Court, sitting at the Central Criminal Court and the Rolls Building.
Hayes was convicted of eight counts of conspiracy to defraud in August 2015 and sentenced to 14 years in prison, later reduced to 11 years on appeal.
During the confiscation proceedings, the court was asked to consider three questions: had the defendant benefited from relevant criminal conduct? if so, what was the value of the benefit he obtained?; and what sum was recoverable from him?
Mr Justice Cooke, who oversaw the trial and confiscation proceedings, found that Hayes would not have been rated as highly as he was by UBS and Citi if he had not achieved success in the manipulation of LIBOR and therefore would not have been rewarded as highly as he was but for that activity.
Mr Justice Cooke agreed with the SFO that it cannot be known what the LIBOR would have been but for the defendant’s attempts to manipulate it. In deciding on the extent of the criminal benefit, the Judge evaluated, the extent to which Hayes’ attempt to manipulate LIBOR had on his overall trading activities and the impact this would have had on the profit/loss position of his employers and the effect that this had on his remuneration.
After considering the above factors, Mr Justice Cooke concluded that the final amount to be confiscated is the sum of £878,806. The total available assets are in the sum of £1,705,167.56.
Mr Justice Cooke ordered that Hayes must satisfy the order within a specified period or incur a default prison sentence of three years.
Commenting on today’s order, Mark Thompson, Head of the SFO’s Proceeds of Crime Division, said:
“The court acknowledged the challenges of quantifying the benefit from crime in this case. The SFO provided the court with all the available information and the outcome is a substantial confiscation order, which Mr Hayes will need to satisfy or face a further period of imprisonment.”
Costs will be determined at a later date.
Notes to editors:
1. For more details on Hayes’ conviction and sentence, please click here. Data on the value of Proceeds of Crime Orders obtained over the past five years as well as the payments made by defendants in respect of orders made against them can be viewed here.
2. Counsel for the prosecution included Michael Parroy QC, James Byrne and Sheena Cassidy.
3. London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from one another. Yen LIBOR is the average interest rate at which a large number of banks on the London money market are prepared to lend one another unsecured funds denominated in Japanese yen. A huge number of investments and trades are referenced to LIBOR. These transactions involve small businesses, large financial institutions and public authorities as well as individuals affected by the interest rates attached to a wide range of contracts including loans, savings rates and mortgages.