Stylianos Contogoulas and Ryan Michael Reich, two former traders with U.K. bank Barclays PLC, have been acquitted by a jury on charges related to the alleged manipulation of the LIBOR interest rate benchmark.
The charges of conspiracy to defraud that were laid against the two men stemmed from an investigation by the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which prosecuted the case, into the alleged manipulation of U.S. dollar LIBOR. An earlier trial resulted in a hung jury in 2016. The SFO retried the case earlier this year and the pair have now been acquitted.
In the original trial, three of their co-defendants were convicted after an 11-week hearing, and another pled guilty. All four were sentenced to prison time as a result.
The SFO’s other cases involving alleged LIBOR manipulation have resulted in one conviction by a jury and six acquittals.