Convicted rate-rigger Tom Hayes in fresh appeal as he fights to clear his name

Lawyers for convicted rate-rigger Tom Hayes will today take the next step in the fight to clear his name as they formally apply for his case to go Britain’s highest court.

The former Citigroup and UBS trader was jailed in 2015 for manipulating benchmark lending rate Libor and served five-and-a-half years behind bars.

Last month, Court of Appeal judges threw out his attempt to clear his name and he has until today to apply formally to have the case heard by the Supreme Court.

The case centres on the London interbank-offered rate (Libor) which was once used to price trillions of dollars’ worth of financial trades globally, and calculated using submissions from traders on the rate at which banks would lend to each other.

Hayes, 44, was accused of dishonestly conspiring with others to manipulate the rate to benefit his bank’s trading position. He claims he was made a scapegoat for the financial crisis.

He and fellow trader Carlo Palombo – who had also been jailed for rate-rigging in a separate case – saw their appeals against conviction rejected last month.