NY Judge sides with DOJ over discovery process in Forex benchmark rate fixing case

Maria Nikolova

Judge Lorna G. Schofield sided with the Department of Justice to extend the stay on the discovery process in FX rate fixing case against major banks.

As per FinanceFeeds’ earlier reports, the United States Department of Justice has sought to intervene in a Forex rate fixing case by requesting an extension to a discovery stay. That request, however, has run counter the plaintiffs’ plans concerning deposition taking from senior executives of defendant banks. Whereas the plaintiffs have argued that the deposition taking should proceed in a swift manner, the DOJ has insisted on the stay.

On Tuesday, December 19, 2017, Judge Lorna G. Schofield of the New York Southern District Court sided with the DOJ and granted its application for a three month-extension of the discovery stay in the matter captioned Nypl v. JP Morgan Chase & Co. et al (1:15-cv-09300). This means that the discovery stay is extended until March 8, 2018.

The case involves some of the world’s biggest banks, such as Barclays PLC (LON:BARC), Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (LON:RBS), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), HSBC, JP Morgan Chase & Co, and Bank of America Corporation.

The plaintiffs had requested to take depositions from:

  • Stuart Alderoty, Esq., former Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, HSBC Bank USA, N.A.;
  • Marc Moses, Executive Director and Group Chief Risk Officer, HSBC Holdings plc;
  • James Fuqua, Esq., General Counsel, UBS Securities LLC, Investment Bank Americas;
  • Axel Weber, Chairman of the Board of Directors, UBS Group AG;
  • Matthew Fitzwater, Esq., Global Head of Litigation, Investigations, and Enforcement, Barclays PLC;
  • Rohan Weerasinghe, Esq., General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Citigroup, Inc.;
  • Stephen Cutler, Esq., former General Counsel and current Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Chase & Co.;
  • James Esposito, Esq., Global General Counsel, NatWest Markets and General Counsel (Americas), Royal Bank of Scotland.

The plaintiffs had argued that there is no court order that would “prohibit the taking of depositions of those very persons who signed the criminal Plea Agreements and Deferred Prosecution Agreement in which they acknowledged a vast price-fixing scheme covering many years and affecting billions of dollars stolen from unsuspecting victims”.

The DOJ had replied that the proposed stay protects the integrity of ongoing grand jury investigations and cases, and is fair to the plaintiffs, particularly at this relatively early stage of discovery in their civil case.

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