If financial whooptie-do makes your head do somersaults, please skip this post. If you, like me, are into that stuff, read on.
Former UBS and Citigroup derivatives trader Tom Hayes is currently serving an 11 year sentence for conspiring to rig LIBOR interest rates. He is unique in that he’s the first person to be sentenced with fraud related to fixing LIBOR rates; friends say he’s more scapegoat than mastermind. The cases against his six co-defendants were dismissed shortly after his trial.
From the Please help Tom Hayes Fundrazr:
Tom was arrested on 11 December 2012 following a dawn raid on his family home conducted by the UK authorities. He was then charged by the US for identical conduct just 8 days later. The dawn raid and US charges came as a complete surprise – Tom had never even been contacted, let alone interviewed, by prosecutors in either country.
Desperate to avoid extradition to the US so that he could stay near to his wife and small baby, and in a suicidal and anxious state so extreme that he spent much of his time staring at patterns on bathroom tiles or the trunks of trees, Tom felt he had to co-operate with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office. Tom entered a co-operation programme and gave a series of false confessions to the Serious Fraud Office to ensure that he would be charged in the UK and avoid extradition to the US.
Reuters reports that Hayes — who lives with a mild form of Asperger’s — plans to move forward with a review:
Hayes on Tuesday formally announced plans to bring his case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which looks at miscarriages of justice and can refer a case back to the appeal courts – usually on the basis of compelling new evidence.
He has appointed human rights lawyer Karen Todner, who once represented Gary McKinnon, an Asperger’s syndrome sufferer who admitted hacking into Pentagon and NASA computers but won a seven-year battle against U.S. extradition in 2012.
“Tom’s family are now in possession of fresh evidence, some of which Tom requested in his trial but which UBS and the prosecution did not supply, choosing instead to say that it did not exist or that Tom had got it wrong,” Todner said.
“We believe Tom has a strong case, which our submission to the CCRC will demonstrate.”
The Fundrazr is asking for to cover
(1) reviewing the fresh evidence and new lines of legal argument;
(2) drafting an application to the CCRC on the basis of the above;
(3) if the CCRC accepts Tom’s case for investigation, liaising with the CCRC and its lawyers throughout the investigation process; and, hopefully,
(4) representing Tom in a new appeal before the Court of Appeal.
As we know, GoFundMe specifically forbids fundraising for criminal trials/appeals. Fundrazr does not appear to have that same limitation so hey, more power to them.
I see a massive growth opportunity for Fundrazr here: fundraising for criminal trials is allowed and they pay out in PayPal? Hold onto your panties, GoFundMe, you might just have some real competition here.
