I was prepared to hear that the big beasts of the banking world protected themselves at the expense of those further down the food chain, I was less prepared for the revelations that official UK institutions appeared to contribute to the miscarriages of justice Verity brings to life. Following rulings by the Supreme Court In Ivey v Genting Casinos and the Court of Appeal in Barton in 2020, the test for dishonesty now requires a jury to consider what facts the accused actually knew or believed at the time, and whether their conduct was dishonest when viewed by the standards of ordinary people. While the defence barristers must have truly been perplexed and concerned as these cases unfolded, it is the experiences of the traders and their families (including some children deprived of their fathers for years) that should not be forgotten.

A co-ordinated drive by national central banks and governments pressed banks to manipulate the Libor and Euribor benchmark interest rates at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, an exposé to be published next week alleges. Instead, they accuse 37 traders of another kind of interest rate ‘rigging’ that no-one had seen as a crime. It's "a secret history to which the public would otherwise have had no access," says Verity in the book's preface seen by POLITICO. From these 16 estimates, the BBA would then take the average of the middle eight, and that would be the day’s market rate for borrowing money – the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).

This case illustrates why Parliament should bolster its information-gathering powers with more effective sanctions against those who provide less than the full picture. Nevertheless, this account takes a complex topic and makes it very accessible, drawing conclusions that feel sound and well constructed. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As Rigged reveals, their instructions come first from top bosses – then from central banks and governments. Libor and Euribor rates were estimates that banks provided of the cost of borrowing money from each other, and that influenced interest rates for mortgages and loans.

They were sentenced to huge jail terms for crimes which were at best minor, and may never have committed at all.This book is a must-read for investors, economists and bankers - and all those wary of global 'markets' in money or commodities. Nearly five years ago, the former CEO of Barclays Bank, Bob Diamond, defended himself against accusations that on his watch, Barclays had deliberately falsified Libor submissions.

Andy has always been an uncompromising journalist, and he's fought to tell a dystopian tale of a lowballing scandal at the top of financial society.A truly shocking story of collusion, conspiracy and cover-up at the heart of our financial establishment that have led to grave miscarriages of justice.