August 19, 2025
In the latest FOCUS, Red Lion Chambers’ Professor David Ormerod CBE, KC (Hon) examines the Supreme Court’s judgment in Hayes & Palombo—a decision already being hailed as a defining moment for financial crime law.
The unanimous ruling quashed the LIBOR/EURIBOR convictions, finding that legal directions at trial had characterised trading-influenced rate submissions as inherently dishonest or false and wrongly removed the issue from the jury.
Key insights in this month’s FOCUS examine:
• LIBOR submissions were subjective estimates, not factual misrepresentations.
• The use of ‘conspiracy to defraud’ was overly broad and imprecise.
• Sharp criticism was levelled at the Court of Appeal and the SFO.
• The judgment questions the boundaries between fact and law in fraud trials—and reignites the debate on juryless trials.
Read David Ormerod KC’s article for FOCUS here: [Focus]
We are also grateful to Antony Shaw KC, Rudi Fortson KC, Hannah Wilcocks KC and Allison Clare KC for their input and insight.
Editor of Focus: Ed Vickers KC
Editor of Red Lion Chambers Fraud Newsletter: Faras Baloch