OANDA offers $75,000 to former customer to settle legal action
Perspectives for OANDA settling a legal action brought by its former customer Antonio Medina look brighter, as the scope of potential settlement has been clarified.
Online trading services provider OANDA Corporation is getting closer to reaching a settlement with its former customer Antonio Medina, who has filed a lawsuit against the broker accusing it, inter alia, of fraud and stress infliction.
As per the latest court filings, seen by FinanceFeeds, the law firm representing OANDA on Thursday submitted a Letter to the Judge assigned to the case at the New York Southern District Court. In the Letter, the law firm confirms that OANDA has been in direct discussions with the plaintiff concerning settlement.
The parties have clarified the scope of the settlement. OANDA initially offered Mr Medina $75,000, with the condition that:
the action pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and a related matter between the parties pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California be dismissed;
the parties enter into a general release.
In response, Mr Medina provided a counteroffer of $85,000, which OANDA is currently considering.
The legal action, captioned Medina v. OANDA Corporation (1:17-cv-02316), accuses the defendants of: (1) breach of warranty; (2) false advertising; (3) breach of oral contract; (4) breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing; (5) breach of fiduciary duty; (6) fraud; and (7) infliction of emotional distress.
Mr Medina has argued that OANDA had charged him with fictitious interest for non-existing money and did not provide the competitive spreads that it promised, but instead expanded it beyond the competition’s.
Starting on or around August 2015, his complaint says, the Defendants have failed to provide competent service, failing to follow Mr Medina’s trade instructions. Plaintiff received either no response or unresponsive emails, when he attempted to contact the broker. Moreover, Defendants promised that OANDA’s exchange prices, quotes and spread were transparent and that they would provide historical data with at least one minute accuracy spanning many years back but allegedly failed to do so.
Also, Mr Medina claims that as a result of the Defendants’ acts and omissions, he suffered mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress.
OANDA’s former CEO Ed Eger was removed from the defendants’ list in this case last week. The reason for the Court Order was that when the case was pending in the Northern District of California, Judge Davila denied the plaintiff’s request to amend his complaint to join Ed Eger.
