Barclays Libor-Rigging Jury Reaches Verdict on 1 Defendant

(Bloomberg) —

The jury in the trial of five former Barclays Plc traders over Libor-rigging allegations said they’ve reached a decision on one of the defendants, and were told by the judge that he would accept a non-unanimous verdict on the rest after the panel said they’d reached an impasse.

Judge Anthony Leonard gave the majority-verdict instruction Thursday after the jury sent a note informing the court about their inability to reach a verdict on the other men. The direction means the jurors can deliver a verdict that is supported by at least 10 of them.

The jurors were sent out to deliberate on Monday after a two-month trial in which ex-traders Alex Pabon, Stylianos Contogoulas, Jonathan Mathew, Jay Merchant and Ryan Reich are accused of conspiring to fix the London interbank offered rate, a benchmark tied to trillions of dollars in securities and loans, between 2005 and 2007.

After giving the jury the majority instruction, Leonard said they should “strive to reach a verdict on which you are all agreed” because it is “still early days” in their discussions.

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