Traders are accused of ‘gaming system’

A group of five traders “gamed the financial system” to rig a vital benchmark interest rate in their favour in a bid to boost their employer’s profits and their own pay and bonuses, a court has heard.

Achim Kraemer, 53, Philippe Moryoussef, 49, Sisse Bohart, 41, Colin Bermingham, 61, and Carlo Palombo, 39, are accused of manipulating the process used to set the Euribor the euro interbank offered rate - to tweak the rate a few basis points to their advantage.

Kraemer, a trader at Deutsche Bank, and the remaining four defendants who all worked at Barclays, face one count of conspiracy to defraud between January 2005 and December 2009. Jurors at Southwark Crown Court were told they did not need to consider whether a fraud had taken place, only whether the five defendants were involved. .