Barclays bankers are jailed

TWO Barclays bankers convicted of rigging interest rates have been jailed.

Colin Bermingham, 62, and Carlo Palombo, 42, earned close to £9m as they manipulated Euribor with two other bankers.

The ‘sophisticated’ fraud took place between 2005 and 2009 and led to ‘substantial’ profits on billion-pound trades. Bermingham, pictured, an ex-managing director at Barclays, was jailed for five years and Palombo, a former vice-president, was sentenced to four years.

Fellow conspirators Christian Bittar, a star trader at Deutsche Bank, and former Barclays director Philippe Moryoussef were sentenced to 13 years in total last year. Bermingham was ‘by far the most senior banker in the case’, according to the judge, and the crimes ‘simply could not have been done’ at Barclays without him. Sentencing Bermingham at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Michael Gledhill QC said he had committed his crimes because of his ‘desire to be respected’ as he did not benefit financially. The judge said Palombo committed his crimes because of ‘greed’ and he thought he would never be caught. Judge Gledhill slammed procedures at Barclays, adding: ‘Managers should have known what was going on and stopped it.’