By Lucca de Paoli | Updated on Oct 09, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Former Deutsche Bank AG trader Christian Bittar has had his conviction over fixing benchmark interest rates quashed, despite pleading guilty more than eight years ago.
Bittar, who earned the sobriquet ‘Mr. Basis Point’ for his wagers on tiny changes in short-term interest rates, served a 23-month sentence and was released in February 2020. The UK’s Court of Appeal ruled that his original conviction was unsafe, and exonerated him on Friday.
Bittar was not present in court on Friday, but was watching via an online link.
The ruling comes after a series of convictions of traders for fixing key interest rates have been overturned.
Former UBS Group AG trader Tom Hayes had his conviction overturned last year by the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest. The top court ruled that the juries were misdirected in the case of Hayes and another Barclays Plc trader Carlo Palombo, making those and similar convictions unsafe. Five former Barclays traders earlier this week also had their convictions quashed.
Read More: Rate-Rigging Convictions of Barclays Traders Tossed by Court
The conviction of Bittar was different to those already overturned as he pleaded guilty in 2018. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office, which prosecuted the case originally, unsuccessfully argued that his conviction remained safe as he had pleaded guilty.
Bittar grew up in Senegal, went to a top French university and then started working for Societe Generale SA as a quantitative analyst. He was poached by Deutsche Bank in 2001 and gained notoriety for hugely successful wagers on the spreads in short term interest rates during the financial crisis. One year, he received a bonus of £90 million, worth $126 million at the time.
Read More: From a $126 Million Bonus to Jail: The Fall of a Star Trader