The Serious Fraud Office has accepted that the convictions of Hickman & Rose clients Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew and Philippe Moryoussef are unsafe.
All three were convicted of fraud in relation to the LIBOR or EURIBOR benchmark interest rates, and instructed Hickman & Rose following unsuccessful appeals to the Court of Appeal.
The SFO has updated its response to the Supreme Court’s judgement in the recent case of Carlo Palombo and Tom Hayes, which quashed the two men’s LIBOR and EURIBOR related fraud convictions.
The agency webpage now reads: “We consider that the jury directions, given at Hayes’ and subsequently Palombo’s trial and which were the basis of the court’s judgment, may apply to Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant, Alex Pabon, Philippe Moryoussef and Colin Bermingham’s trials. Therefore, their convictions may be considered unsafe.”
Responding to the announcement, Hickman & Rose co-founder Ben Rose said:
“The SFO’s admission that the convictions of our clients, Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew and Philippe Moryoussef are unsafe is long-awaited good news.
“These three men were the victims of the same unfair prosecutions as Carlo Palombo and Tom Hayes, whose convictions were overturned by the Supreme Court last month.
“We have already lodged applications with the CCRC to have their cases referred back to the Court of Appeal. We will now seek to urgently expedite this process.
“We understand the SFO is still considering its position in relation to Christian Bittar. We have set out in detail to the SFO why his conviction is also unsafe – and hope it will agree with our analysis as quickly as possible.”
Ben Rose, Tom Bushnell and Nisha Patel acted for Carlo Palombo in his successful appeal to the Supreme Court. The same Hickman & Rose trio now represent Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Philippe Moryoussef and Christian Bittar in challenges to their convictions.
