Jailed Libor trader Tom Hayes is crowdfunding to raise £150,000 to appeal his conviction

Tom Hayes, the former banker convicted for his role in rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is trying to raise money for an appeal against his conviction - using a crowdfunding platform.

Hayes, who could serve as long as 11-years in jail for his role in the scandal, is attempting to raise £150,000 on crowdfunding site FundRazr so that he can appeal his conviction. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

So far, the campaign, called "Please help Tom Hayes, the global LIBOR scapegoat" has managed to raise £2,135 in around four days. That's just over 1% of the total goal. There are 25 backers as of 2:00 p.m. BST (9:00 a.m. ET).

Here's an extract from the campaign page:

After an unfair and politically motivated LIBOR show trial, Tom Hayes was scapegoat sentenced to 14 years in prison on 3 August 2015 (later reduced to 11 years on appeal).

In March 2016, the same court issued an order meaning that Tom and his family have to sell almost everything they own, including the family home and Tom and his wife's wedding rings, to pay the UK Government nearly £900,000.00 as the "proceeds of crime" or else Tom will have to serve even more time in prison.

Tom continues to maintain his innocence and is fighting to clear his name.

Tom's family are now in possession of fresh evidence in his case. Please help Tom's family to raise money for legal fees for a new appeal.

In March, Hayes was ordered to pay back around £900,000 by a London judge, as the money was deemed to be the proceeds of crime.

LIBOR - or the London interbank offered rate - is the daily measure meant to show the rate at which banks will lend to each other and is used to set the price of hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of financial products.

Hayes, a 36-year-old former UBS and Citigroup derivatives trader, was held up as an example to errant bankers when he was convicted last August of masterminding a conspiracy to distort LIBOR to suit his trading book.

However, Hayes has consistently argued that he has been held up as a scapegoat, and has made several attempts to try and clear his name. However, his attempts have been knocked back so far, although his sentence has been reduced from 14 to 11 years in prison. In March, Hayes was blocked from appealing to the UK's Supreme Court against his conviction.

Hayes now plans to take his case to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an organisation set up to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice, the campaign's page says.

"Tom's family are now in possession of fresh evidence, some of which Tom requested in his trial but which UBS and the prosecution did not supply," Hayes' lawyer Todner said in a statement, according to Bloomberg. "We believe Tom has a strong case, which our submission to the CCRC will demonstrate."