Hickman & Rose client Carlo Palombo has conviction overturned at Supreme Court
23 Jul 2025
After a six year battle for justice, Hickman & Rose client Carlo Palombo has had his conviction for fraud in relation to alleged EURIBOR manipulation overturned by the UK’s Supreme Court.
Former Barclays trader Carlo Palombo was convicted in 2019 of conspiracy to defraud, and lost his first appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2020.
Hickman & Rose were instructed after Carlo’s first appeal. In 2023, the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred his case and that of Tom Hayes back to the Court of Appeal, citing the different approach to alleged LIBOR manipulation taken by the US courts.
Although the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals again last year, it certified that the decision involved a point of law of general public importance, opening the door for an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Mr Palombo and Mr Hayes’ appeals were heard jointly in March 2025 over three days.
Today, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned their convictions, overruling the approach taken in five successive decisions by the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court remarked that “The history of these two cases raises concerns about the effectiveness of the criminal appeal system in England and Wales in confronting legal error.”
Ben Rose said:
“I’m truly delighted for Carlo and Tom that their convictions have been overturned by the Supreme Court.
Today’s trenchant criticism of how the juries were directed and how the cases were prosecuted applies with equal force to the convictions of seven other individuals for alleged LIBOR and EURIBOR manipulation. I hope that they, too, will soon see their unjust convictions quashed.
But today’s victory is bittersweet. It has taken a decade – almost to the day – to reverse the fundamental legal error made in Tom’s trial and repeated in all those that followed. The damage caused to the lives of those prosecuted and wrongly convicted in the meantime will take years to unwind.”
The Supreme Court’s judgment can be found here: https://supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2024-0088
Carlo Palombo is represented by Ben Rose, Tom Bushnell and Nisha Patel at Hickman & Rose, instructing Tim Owen KC, Jonathan Crow CVO KC, Katherine Hardcastle, Tim James-Matthews and Elizabeth Walsh.
They worked closely with Tom Hayes’ team throughout: Karen Todner, who instructed Adrian Darbishire KC and Tom Doble.
