Ex-Euribor traders sentenced to jail for global rate-rigging plot

LONDON (Reuters) - Former star Deutsche Bank trader Christian Bittar and Philippe Moryoussef, who once worked at Barclays, were sentenced to jail by a London court on Thursday for plotting to rig global interest rates.

The two Frenchmen, friends outside work who went skiing together, were convicted of conspiracy to defraud by dishonestly manipulating the Euro interbank lending rate (Euribor), a benchmark for trillions of financial contracts and loans, between January 2005 and December 2009 for profit.

Bittar, 46, was handed a sentence of five years and four months. Once one of the world's best-paid traders, he pleaded guilty in March and has been in custody since.

Moryoussef, 50, was sentenced to eight years after a jury unanimously convicted him last week. He did not take part in the trial, having skipped bail and sought refuge in France.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; editing by John Stonestreet)