(Adds detail on emails shown in court)
By Anjuli Davies and Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Former Barclays executive EricBommensath told a London court on Tuesday that he was not awareof alleged attempts by traders at the British bank to manipulatethe Libor global financial benchmark rate.
Former Barclays traders Stylianos Contogoulas, JayMerchant, Alex Pabon and Ryan Reich and former Barclays ratesubmitter Jonathan Mathew have all pleaded not guilty to acharge of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating U.S. dollarLibor rates between June 2005 and September 2007.
Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the agency in chargeof prosecuting complex financial crime, alleges the five mendishonestly agreed to procure or make submissions of rates inthe dollar Libor-setting process which were false or misleadingin order to benefit their trading positions.
Each count carries a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.
On April 7, the prosecution told the court that Merchantalleged to the SFO in March 2014 that top bosses at Barclays,including Bommensath, had approved and condoned the practice ofmaking such Libor requests.
Bommensath, who was global head of fixed income at Barclaysat the time of the indictment period, told the jury in Londonthat he was never aware of or condoned the practice.
He was appearing for the first time in the trial as aprosecution witness.
The London interbank offered rate, known as Libor, is abenchmark for about $450 trillion of financial contractsworldwide, from complex derivatives to student loans.
French-educated Bommensath, who started his banking careerat Banker's Trust as a trader, had moved to New York from Londonby the autumn of 2006 in an expanded role that saw himresponsible for up to 1,000 employees, he told the court.
Bommensath told the jury that Merchant never reported to himand was "at least" two levels below him. He once played tenniswith Merchant, who was a very good player, but otherwise henever socialised with him, Bommensath added.
FUN AND GAMES
Bommensath also told court that he had not been aware at thetime of Barclays submitting lower Libor rates during the2007-2008 financial crisis - known as lowballing - to allaysolvency fears.
Two lawyers for the defence said Bommensath was among around100 recipients of emails sent by Peter Johnson, a former U.S.dollar Libor submitter at Barclays, who is not on trial.
An email from Johnson on Aug. 31, 2007 was read out to thejury and shown on screens in the courtroom. In the email, whichwas copied to Bommensath, Johnson said: "Fun and games in Liborland ... Just for your guidance, I do not think I am settingLibors high enough!"
In another email, dated Nov. 28, 2007, read out by defencelawyers and shown on screens, Johnson wrote: "Libors are notreflecting the true cost of money... but it is not a good ideaat the moment to be seen to be too far away from the pack."
When asked by the defence lawyers to confirm that this wasevidence of Barclays setting dollar Libor rates lower than theyshould have been, Bommensath said money markets weredysfunctional at the time and that he had been focused ondealing with the mortgage crises and credit risk in New York.
He had not been aware that the bank had set inaccuraterates, he said.
Defence lawyers and Barclays have declined to comment. (Editing by Alexander Smith and Jane Merriman)
Barclays (BARC)
