US: Tom Hayes taps crowdfunding to libor-rigging appeal

Tom Hayes, the former UBS Group AG trader serving 11 years in prison for rigging Libor, has turned to crowdfunding to raise 150,000 pounds for an appeal.

On a Fundrazr webpage covered in photographs of the trader with his wife and son, Hayes’s supporters describe the 36-year-old as a “Libor scapegoat” whose conviction was the result of a “politically motivated show trial.”

The account has raised about 2,100 pounds over four days. Hayes’s ability to fund his defense was dealt a setback in March after he was ordered by a London court to pay back 880,000 pounds that was determined to be the proceeds of his crimes.

Hayes, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome last year, was the first individual convicted at trial in the London interbank offered rate scandal that saw authorities levy about $9 billion in fines and charge more than 20 individuals. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in August — one of the longest sentences ever for financial crime in the UK — before it was reduced on appeal.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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