The Court of Appeal in London has overturned the conviction of former Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bitar, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to participating in the manipulation of Euribor. He was sentenced to 5 years and four months in prison.
Euribor is the reference interest rate for the euro, which is involved in determining the interest rates on financial contracts and loans worth trillions of dollars worldwide. The court has ordered the conviction to be quashed but will publish its written reasons at a later stage.
The position of the British prosecution
Bittar is the first person convicted of manipulating Euribor or Libor to have his conviction quashed after pleading guilty. Libor was the British equivalent of Euribor and is no longer used.
He added that the office remained committed to tackling complex cases of fraud, corruption and bribery. The SFO has prosecuted a total of 20 people in the framework of the investigation into the manipulation of reference interest rates. Seven were convicted after trials, two pleaded guilty and 11 were acquitted.
A series of overturned convictions
The Bitar ruling comes two days after the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of five former Barclays traders. They were convicted in cases related to Libor and Euribor.
The series of reversals began after a Supreme Court ruling in 2025 overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, and Carlo Palombo, who worked for Barclays. The top judges accepted that legal errors in jury instructions had affected the fairness of the trials.
According to data cited by Reuters, eight convictions in the benchmark interest rate manipulation cases have now been overturned since the latest rulings. Bitar's case stands out from the others because he pleaded guilty and the UK's Serious Fraud Office contested his appeal.
The Court of Appeal's final reasoning will show on what legal grounds the conviction was overturned and how the decision will affect the remaining proceedings in the scandal.