‘It was a joke’ says accused Libor rigger who said he’d have colleague’s name in gold

A former Barclays trader said comments he made about putting a colleague’s name in ‘gold letters’ when he wrote a book about his work were just ‘banter,’ a court heard. Stylianos Contogoulas, 44, also denied bribing colleagues with coffees and sushi to try and get them to rig Libor rates. The Greek-born trader told jurors that he had never acted dishonestly and that he flagged up concerns about another trader’s work to a senior manager. Contogoulas along with Jay Vijay…