City Trader Was 'Ringmaster' In Libor Scandal

A trader was motivated by greed and acted as "ringmaster" in rigging interbank lending rates, a court has been told.

Tom Hayes, 35, is accused of doing "everything in his power" and "behaving in a thoroughly dishonest manner" to manipulate the lending rates, known as Libor.

The former UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX - news) and Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) trader, of Fleet in Hampshire, is on trial for eight counts of conspiracy to defraud between 2006 and 2010, all of which he denies.

Mukul Chawla QC, prosecuting, said Hayes had "repeatedly cheated those with whom he had entered into huge financial transactions".

Mr Chawla added: "He was the ringmaster at the very centre, telling others around him what to do and in a number of cases rewarding them for their dishonest assistance.

"The motive was a simple one: it was greed."

Libor is the interest rate banks charge one another and is the basis of trillions of dollars of financial transactions.

It is set daily and is also a reflection of an institution's credit worthiness.

Hayes, who has mild Asperger syndrome, was described as an "extremely intelligent man", who joined the Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) 's graduate scheme in 2001 after leaving university with a maths and engineering degree.

Later he worked for the Royal Bank of Canada (Other OTC: RBKDF - news) before joining UBS in September 2006, where he was a trader in Tokyo.

He left them in September 2009 to join Citigroup and remained in Tokyo.

But he was sacked a year later after a complaint about the amount he was manipulating Libor, Mr Chawla said.

Hayes returned to the UK and was arrested in December 2012, spending more than 80 hours being interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over the course of five months.

Mr Chawla said four of the charges related to Hayes' time with UBS and four charges covered his work with Citigroup.

A recording of one of Hayes' interviews with the SFO was played to the court.

In the audio clip, he said he was part of a system where rigging Libor was "commonplace" and he admitted he was a "serial offender".

Jurors heard that Hayes told investigators: "The point is, you are greedy, you want every little bit of money you can possibly get... that's how you are judged, that's your performance metric."

The trial continues.