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By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Three former Barclays traders jailed for manipulating Libor benchmark interest ratesafter a London trial have been denied a request to appealagainst their conviction and sentence, the wife of one said onFriday.
Julie Pabon said her husband, Alex, and former colleaguesJay Merchant and Jonathan Mathew were recently notified thattheir requests had been rejected by the Court of Appeal.
The men's lawyers and the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), theprosecutor in the case, did not respond to requests for comment.
Pabon, an American, was sentenced to two years and ninemonths in jail in July. Merchant, his former New York-basedsuperior, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years, and Mathew, aLondon-based junior rate submitter, was handed four years.
"I am shocked and saddened yet somewhat relieved that ourfight appears to be nearing the end," Julie Pabon wrote in anemail received by Reuters.
Julie Pabon, an American who lives in the United States andhad appealed directly to the head of the SFO, David Green, onbehalf of her husband, said Alex had sent her a text message onJune 30 after his London trial saying: "I'm sorry ... guilty..."
"Even though it appears that we will not receive justice, Ilook forward to moving on with our lives at some point in thenear future," she said. "I am saddened that this is the resultbut I know that the truth will eventually come out and myhusband will be exonerated."
Merchant, Mathew and Pabon denied one count of dishonestlyskewing Libor, a benchmark for rates on about $450 trillion ofcontracts and loans worldwide, between June 2005 and September2007.
In an 11-week trial, they argued that their bosses hadsanctioned attempts to influence rates, that they did so in fullview of compliance staff, and that such practices werewidespread at the time.
But the jury found them guilty, and the judge said they hadabused their position of trust and undermined the integrity ofthe banking industry. They were told they would serve half theirsentence in prison before being released on licence.
The men were convicted four years after Barclays became thefirst of 11 powerful banks and brokerages to be fined for itsrole in the rate-fixing scandal, sparking a political backlashthat forced out former Chief Executive Bob Diamond, an overhaulof Libor rules and the U.K. wing of the criminal inquiry.
Two other former Barclays traders face a re-trial inFebruary after the jury was unable to reach a verdict in theircase. A sixth former Barclays trader, Peter Johnson, pleadedguilty and was sentenced to four years.
Tom Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader,was the first man convicted of Libor manipulation last year. Hewas sentenced to 14 years in jail, reduced to 11 years onappeal.
(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Leslie Adler)
