Deutsche Bank Trader Christian Bittar Wins Appeal After 18 years

Christian Bittar, a former Deutsche Bank trader, has successfully appealed his conviction for manipulating the Euribor interest rate benchmark, adding to a growing list of financial professionals cleared in the UK rate-rigging saga. The Court of Appeal quashed Bittar’s sentence on Thursday, following a legal battle that spanned nearly two decades.

Bittar, who was originally imprisoned in 2018, watched the proceedings remotely from Switzerland after being denied entry to the UK. He expressed his relief to the BBC, stating, “I have waited a very, very long time for this day.” His wife, Caroline Bittar, emphasized the human cost of the ordeal, noting that their family lost 15 “valuable years” and that their children were raised under the shadow of the injustice.

This ruling comes just days after the same court overturned the convictions of five former Barclays bankers—Jay Merchant, Jonathan Mathew, Alex Pabon, Colin Bermingham, and Philippe Mouryoussef—who had also spent over a decade fighting their sentences. The appeals were bolstered by a Supreme Court decision last year that acquitted Tom Hayes, the first trader jailed for the offense in 2015, and Carlo Palombo, who was sentenced in 2019.

The rate-rigging scandal, which erupted in 2012, revealed that major banks had misreported borrowing costs during the onset of the 2008 financial crisis to boost profits and conceal financial weakness. Between 2015 and 2019, 19 traders in the US and UK were convicted across nine trials in London and New York. To date, 18 of these convictions have been overturned or acquitted.

The sole remaining convicted trader is former Barclays dealer Peter Johnson, who also served as an initial whistleblower. Johnson pleaded guilty in 2015 after legal advice suggested a trial would be unwinnable; he has now applied to appeal his conviction as well.

The reversals have reignited calls for transparency regarding the role of central banks. Former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis told the BBC that the acquitted traders were victims of a “scapegoating exercise” orchestrated by governments to distract from their own manipulation of rates during the crisis. Davis alleged that evidence implicating Downing Street and the Bank of England in suppressing the truth was withheld throughout the criminal trials.

Bittar thanked those who supported him, saying, “Finally the injustice of what I and others suffered has been recognised.” Meanwhile, Tom Hayes, whose 14-year sentence was reduced to 11 on appeal, is currently pursuing damages from his former employer, UBS.