Tom Hayes, a former City trader, has begun legal action against UBS. He is seeking $400 million on other claims and accuses the bank of malicious prosecution. Hayes, recently dubbed the “hand-picked scapegoat” of the epic 2008 financial scandal, thinks UBS conducted a botched investigation. He contended that the bank sought to blame him to protect its senior executives from being held accountable.
The public is enchanted by Hayes’ case, who was convicted in 2015. He fixed the benchmark rates of interest on interbank loans, including especially the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) to market on which banks traded help each other. This conviction meant that Hayes was the first banker to serve jail time for the Libor scandal. Prosecutors called him the “ringmaster” of an international fraud conspiracy. It was the Serious Fraud Office that developed the case against him which set in motion a series of events that saw him imprisoned.
In January 2021, after nearly two decades behind bars, Hayes was once again a free man. More recently, this story took a turn when charges against him in the United States were dropped in 2022. In July, the UK Supreme Court quashed Hayes’ conviction, proclaiming it to be unfair. This ruling marks the point at which his past conduct is now officially no longer illegal in the United States. Consequently, he should not have been incarcerated for it. The decision by a US appeal court ultimately ruled that what Hayes had done was legally acceptable.
Hayes has now filed that complaint in a US court. He further alleges that UBS at times inappropriately steered the government-sought investigation into OSS’s own misconduct. He claims the bank planned a “deeply flawed” investigation to find blame with him.
“It has taken me over a decade to overturn my wrongful conviction and clear my name. My legal team are now rightfully holding UBS to account for scapegoating me in order to save billions in fines and protect its senior executives,” – Mr. Hayes.
The consequences of Hayes’ conviction have been deeply significant. He reflects on the personal toll that his wrongful imprisonment has taken, stating, “Nothing can give me back those lost years, or make up for the stress and trauma exacted on me and those close to me.” His life, and the lives of many others, have been irreparably altered. Looking back, he lost not just his freedom but his marriage and the opportunity to raise his son during his formative years of high school.
“My life was ruined by the bank’s actions – I lost my liberty and my marriage, missed out on my son’s childhood, and my physical and mental health suffered terribly. UBS also destroyed my reputation and career,” – Mr. Hayes.
The lawsuit seeks to “deter and punish UBS for its role in intentionally directing the destruction of an innocent man’s life for their own selfish reasons.” Hayes is doing everything he can to hold UBS accountable. He assumes the bank is deliberately trying to sidestep culpability for its fiscal atrocities in this poetic sleight of hand.
Instead, Hayes finds himself today fighting a legal battle. This is emerging at a time when financial institutions are under intense scrutiny with calls for accountability still reverberating from the financial crisis. Unfortunately, his case raises important questions about corporate governance and ethics within our largest banks.
