Sixth Broker Not Guilty Over Libor Scandal

Former broker Darrell Read has been cleared of conspiring to manipulate benchmark interest rates as part of the Libor scandal.

Mr Read, 50, of Wellington, New Zealand, is the sixth of a group of co-defendants to be found not guilty over the rate-rigging controversy.

Loud cheers and applause broke out from the public gallery as the verdict was read out at London's Southwark Crown Crown.

Matthew Frankland, lawyer for another one of the defendants, said the conclusion of the case had apparently prompted standing ovations in trading floors across London.

Mr Read, a former ICAP (LSE: IAP.L - news) broker, was cleared of one charge on Wednesday, alongside his five co-defendants , but the jury had yet to reach a verdict on the second count.

The verdict ends an almost four-month trial against Mr Read, Noel Cryan, 49, of Chislehurst, Kent; Danny Wilkinson, 48, of Hornchurch, Essex; Colin Goodman, 53, of Epsom, Surrey; James Gilmour, 50 of Benfleet, Essex; and Terry Farr, 44, of Southend-on-Sea in Essex.

The six were accused of helping trader Tom Hayes manipulate the Libor rate, a key interbank lending rate that helps determine borrowing costs for trillions of dollars in loans across the world, over a period of four years.

Hayes became the first man to be jailed for rigging Libor interest rates earlier this year when he was sentenced to 14 years behind bars – reduced to 11 on appeal.

The latest trial heard that he repeatedly asked the six via instant messages and emails for help getting the Libor rates set in his favour.

But the defendants' lawyers told the jury they were scapegoats for a fundamentally flawed financial system and that the trial was unfair.

"We can only reiterate what his counsel told the jury, that the SFO (Serious Fraud Office) case was a complete shambles and should never have been brought," said a statement released by solicitors acting for Mr Goodman, who the trial heard had once been known as Lord Libor.

Mr Frankland, the solicitor for Mr Wilkinson, added that most of those prosecuted in Libor cases "are relatively junior within the different organisations, with more senior people not being held to account".

However the director of the SFO, David Green, defended the case.

"The key issue in this trial was whether these defendants were party to a dishonest agreement with Tom Hayes," he said.

"By their verdicts the jury have said that they could not be sure that this was the case.

"Nobody could sensibly suggest that these charges should not have been brought and considered by a jury."