Bivonas Law LLP successfully defended the former Barclays trader Stylianos Contogoulas following a re-trial at Southwark Crown Court on the 6th April 2017. Contogoulas was standing trial with Ryan Reich, another trader, charged with an offence of conspiracy to defraud involving the alleged manipulation of LIBOR. The lead lawyers from Bivonas Law were Steve Sharp and Roland Ellis. Counsel instructed were John Ryder QC, James Fletcher and Karl Massi. Steve Sharp comments:
“This was an extremely demanding and high profile case. Our client’s career and reputation was effectively ruined by the investigation and the subsequent prosecution. Throughout he maintained that he saw nothing wrong in requesting LIBOR submissions from the cash desk at Barclays to benefit their trading book. The speed with which the jury reached a verdict in respect of both our client and Mr Reich would suggest that they had no difficulty accepting this explanation. The trial exposed the fact that such requests were a known practice to both senior bankers and the BBA during the indictment period. The decision to prosecute a small number of relatively junior traders at the bank for conduct that appears to have been systemic and has really only been characterised as “criminal” with the benefit of hindsight was questionable”
Bivonas Law LLP successfully defended the former Barclays trader Stylianos Contogoulas following a re-trial at Southwark Crown Court on the 6th April 2017. Contogoulas was standing trial with Ryan Reich, another trader, charged with an offence of conspiracy to defraud involving the alleged manipulation of LIBOR. The lead lawyers from Bivonas Law were Steve Sharp and Roland Ellis. Counsel instructed were John Ryder QC, James Fletcher and Karl Massi. Steve Sharp comments:
“This was an extremely demanding and high profile case. Our client’s career and reputation was effectively ruined by the investigation and the subsequent prosecution. Throughout he maintained that he saw nothing wrong in requesting LIBOR submissions from the cash desk at Barclays to benefit their trading book. The speed with which the jury reached a verdict in respect of both our client and Mr Reich would suggest that they had no difficulty accepting this explanation. The trial exposed the fact that such requests were a known practice to both senior bankers and the BBA during the indictment period. The decision to prosecute a small number of relatively junior traders at the bank for conduct that appears to have been systemic and has really only been characterised as “criminal” with the benefit of hindsight was questionable”
