LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - Tom Hayes, the first trader jailed worldwide for interest rate rigging, was on Tuesday refused permission to appeal against his conviction at the United Kingdom's Supreme Court, but was given a potential route to clear his name.
Hayes, a former star Citigroup and UBS trader, was convicted in 2015 of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating Libor, a benchmark rate once used to price trillions of financial products globally.
He appealed against his conviction earlier this year alongside Carlo Palombo, a former Barclays trader convicted in 2019 of skewing Libor's euro equivalent, Euribor.
The Court of Appeal in London dismissed their appeals in March, ruling that it was illegal to take commercial interests into account when setting Libor or Euribor rates.
The same court said on Tuesday that their cases raised a "point of law of general public importance" which could be considered by the Supreme Court.
Hayes and Palombo were refused permission to appeal, however, meaning it will be for the Supreme Court to decide whether to hear their appeals.
Citigroup (C.US)
Barclays (BARC)