US District Judge Paul Engelmayer has vacated former Deutsche Bank AG trader Timothy Parietti’s conviction of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. The case was in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In 2016, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Parietti with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. DOJ alleged that Parietti, with others, caused Deutsche Bank to make “false, fraudulent, and misleading submissions” to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) in order to influence the London Interbank Offered Rate. Parietti pleaded guilty to the charge that same year and was ordered to pay a USD 1 million fine.

In January, however, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in United States v. Connolly, involving Parietti’s alleged co-conspirators, that the evidence presented was insufficient to establish that Deutsche Bank made fraudulent statements to the BBA.

In response to the ruling in Connolly, Parietti moved for a writ of error coram nobis. This writ calls the court’s attention to facts that would have changed a judgment but were outside the record and unknown to the court at the time.

On Friday, Engelmayer granted Parietti’s writ “in the interests of justice” and to avoid “profound injustice,” ruling that the Second Circuit decision conclusively established the factual insufficiency of the scheme Parietti pleaded guilty to. The judge vacated Parietti’s guilty plea and ordered the US government to return the fine to Parietti. The government did not oppose the petition.