Two men convicted for manipulating the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR) have been ordered to pay over £1.2million in confiscation orders and costs.
5 March 2020 | Case Updates
HHJ Gledhill ordered Colin Bermingham to pay prosecution costs of £300,000, within 24 months and ordered Carlo Palombo to pay prosecution costs of £725,000 within 24 months. Palombo was also ordered to pay a confiscation order of £182,000 within three months, or he will face a 30-month default sentence.
Palombo and Bermingham are currently serving respective prison sentences of four and five years in prison for their role in the conspiracy to manipulate interest rates at the height of the financial crisis, after being found guilty in March 2019.
Notes to editors
- Colin Bermingham and Carlo Palombo were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud on 28 March 2019.
- The judge made the orders over a three day hearing at Southwark Crown Court, which concluded late yesterday, 4 March 2020.
- There is more information on this case and related convictions on our website.
Related Cases
The SFO issued criminal proceedings against 11 individuals accused of manipulating the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR).
Two former EURIBOR traders were convicted of conspiracy to defraud following a trial in 2018.
Christian Bittar, former Principle Trader at Deutsche Bank, pleaded guilty on 2 March 2018. A court order restricting reporting of the plea was lifted on 6 March 2018. He was sentenced to five years, four months imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay the SFO’s full costs of £799,957 and a confiscation order of £2.5m.
Philippe Moryoussef, formerly of Barclays Bank, was found guilty on 29 June 2018 by a jury. He was sentenced to eight years imprisonment. On 20 December 2018, Moryoussef was ordered by the court to pay a confiscation order of £77,354.26 within three months, or face a further custodial sentence of 3 years.
Former Deutsche Bank employee Achim Kraemer was found not guilty on 29 June 2018 by a jury.
The jury could not reach verdicts on three other defendants, Carlo Palombo, Colin Bermingham and Sisse Bohart, all formerly of Barclays Bank. The SFO sought a retrial and this began on 14 January 2019.
Carlo Palombo was convicted and Sisse Bohart was acquitted by a jury on 26 March 2019. Colin Bermingham was convicted on 28 March 2019.
Palombo and Bermingham were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 1 April 2019 to 4 and 5 years respectively. Both will face a further hearing to determine costs and proceeds of crime action.
The following individuals declined to appear at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 11 January 2016.
Deutsche Bank employees:
Andreas Hauschild
Joerg Vogt
Ardalan Gharagozlou
Kai-Uwe Kappauf
Societe Generale Employee:
Stephane Esper
The SFO secured European Arrest Warrants against these five individuals at a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in February 2016. Extradition was refused by the French and German courts.
Andreas Hauschild was later arrested in Italy and extradited to the UK to stand trial. He was acquitted by a jury on 4 July 2019.
The investigation into EURIBOR was instigated as a result of the SFO’s broader investigation of the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
Euribor is short for Euro Interbank Offered Rate. The Euribor rates are based on the interest rates at which a panel of European banks borrow funds from one another. In the calculation, the highest and lowest 15% of all the quotes collected are eliminated. The remaining rates will be averaged and rounded to three decimal places. Euribor is determined and published at about 11:00 am each day, Central European Time.
When Euribor is being mentioned it is often referred to as THE Euribor, like there’s only 1 Euribor interest rate. This is not correct, since there are in fact 5 different Euribor rates, all with different maturities (until november 1st 2013, there were 15 maturities). See current Euribor rates for an overview of all rates.
