Trial against FX Mafia set to commence on October 9, 2018

The trial against three former Forex traders – Richard Usher, Rohan Ramchandani, and Christopher Ashton, also known as FX Cartel or FX Mafia, is set to start on October 9, 2018. This becomes clear from a brief order signed by Judge Richard M. Berman of the New York Southern District Court earlier today.

The document, seen by FinanceFeeds, says that the trial in this case will commence on Tuesday, October 9, 2018, at 9:15 am with jury selection. More details are given in a transcript which has yet to be made available to the public.

Usher, former Head of G11 FX Trading-UK at an affiliate of Royal Bank of Scotland plc, as well as former Managing Director at an affiliate of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Ramchandani, former Managing Director and head of G10 FX spot trading at an affiliate of Citicorp, and Ashton, former Head of Spot FX at an affiliate of Barclays PLC, are alleged to have conspired to manipulate the FX market by “coordinating their bidding, offering, and trading” at “certain times.”

The legal battle has lately focused on evidence from foreign authorities and witnesses. Thus, for instance, the defendants have insisted that the US Government must personally ask the regulators of Brazil and Korea for any statements made by its cooperating witness. According to the defendants, the US Government has not made its own, direct request to these authorities. Such a request would carry far more weight.

The witness whose testimony is sought is said to have provided detailed description of his past trading activities to Korean and Brazilian authorities. After hearing his testimony, these regulators decided not to prosecute him. That is why, his testimony is seen as crucial in the case and the defendants seek the information with such perseverance.

Let’s recall that Judge Richard Berman of the New York Southern District Court had earlier agreed with a request by Usher, Ramchandani, and Ashton, to move the start of their trial from June to October 2018. The defendants’ request for delay reflected what they called “a staggering amount of recently-produced discovery”.

The defendants have estimated that at the time of the status conference hel on November 9, 2017, the US government had produced nearly 800,000 records totaling 8.2 million pages. The government has turned over millions of electronic chats, emails, and other documents spanning nearly 30 million pages, as well as raw data representing literally hundreds of millions of FX trades. The government has also produced an estimated 270,000 audio files totaling 4,388 hours of recorded audio. These audio files were not accompanied by transcriptions.

The case is captioned USA v. Usher et al (1:17-cr-00019).