NY Judge dismisses as absurd US Govt arguments in LIBOR manipulation case
Judge Colleen McMahon insists that the Government should concentrate on the real deal rather than contest the length of the documents filed by ex-Deutsche Bank traders.
Less than a week after the United States Government sought striking of the documents filed by ex-Deutsche Bank traders Matthew Connolly and Gavin Campbell Black in a LIBOR manipulation case, the Court has reacted to the request.
On Wednesday, December 19, 2018, Judge Colleen McMahon of the New York Southern District Court denied the motion of the United States Government, calling it absurd. Let’s recall that the Government had insisted that the documents filed by the defendants, who are seeking acquittal or a new trial, had to be stricken because they are too long.
On Wednesday, the Judge commented:
“It would not be possible to do post-trial briefing in 25 page briefs in this case. The Government knows that. Which is why its motion is so absurd”.
The Judge advised the Government to “concentrate on the real deal – Mr. Connolly’s Kastigar/outsourced investigation motion. This will likely require the Government to offer a great deal of evidence about what it (not Deutsche Bank/Paul Weiss) did to investigate this case between 2010 and 2015”.
Connolly was Deutsche Bank’s director of the Pool Trading Desk in New York, where he supervised traders who traded USD LIBOR-based derivative products. Black was a director on Deutsche Bank’s Money Market and Derivatives Desk in London, who also traded USD LIBOR-based derivative products. In October this year, Connolly and Black were convicted for their participation in a scheme to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
In their motions for acquittal filed earlier in December, both defendants argued, inter alia, that the Government’s case lacked sufficient evidence that the submitted LIBOR rates were false.
The case continues at the New York Southern District Court.
