Five former Barclays traders in the dock

FIVE former Barclays traders will stand trial this week on charges of fraud relating to Libor rigging.

The Serious Fraud Office alleges former Barclays employees Jonathan Mathew, Stylianos Contogoulas, Jay Merchant, Alex Pabon and Ryan Reich conspired to manipulate dollar Libor rates between June 2005 and September 2007.

The trial, the third brought by the SFO, will be held at London’s Southwark Crown Court and is expected to last 12 weeks.

Barclays was the first bank to settle with US and UK authorities over Libor-rigging, which reduced the overall fine of £290m they paid four years ago. Libor is the interest rate used in trading and is used to set the rate for millions of different financial products.

The SFO’s results have been mixed so far. Its investigations convicted former UBS and Citi trader Tom Hayes but six of his alleged co-conspirators were acquitted.

Its fourth trial should start in September next year, when 11 former Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Société Générale employees face allegations they helped to manipulate Euribor.

Today’s case will be overseen by Judge Anthony Leonard QC, who has heard cases including the prosecutions of the public relations consultant Max Clifford and DJ Dave Lee Travis.