US Department of Justice intervenes in deposition-taking process in FX rate fixing case

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has stepped in the deposition-taking process in a Forex benchmark rate fixing case targeting some of the leading banks. On Friday, December 8, 2017, the DOJ submitted a Letter to Judge Lorna G Schofield of the New York Southern District Court, asking her for a discovery stay extension.

The document, seen by FinanceFeeds, stipulates a request for a three-month extension of the discovery stay covering certain depositions in two cases involving Forex market manipulation, including Nypl v. JP Morgan Chase & Co. et al (1:15-cv-09300).

Let’s recall that the above-mentioned case targets top banks such as HSBC, RBS, JPM, UBS, Barclays, and Citi. Whereas the plaintiffs in the case have sought to take depositions from current and former senior executives and counsel at these banks, the defendants have opposed the motion. As FinanceFeeds reported earlier this week, Judge Lorna G Schofield has sided with the defendants and has granted the defendants’ application to quash the deposition notices served by the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs, however, may renew their notices after the DOJ discovery stay is lifted, she said in her Order.

The Department of Justice argues that its request is reasonable as the scope of the stay appropriately balances the need to protect the integrity of ongoing grand jury investigations and cases with the plaintiffs’ desire for testimonial discovery prior to the class certification phase. It admits, however, that the plaintiffs in the NYPL matter (15-cv-9300) oppose the extension sought. None of the defendants in the matters has objected to the stay request.

The proposed terms of the stay are as follows:

• Depositions and interviews of current and former employees of seven banks – Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, RBS, UBS, BNP Paribas, and HSBC – are stayed.
• Individuals who worked for any of the above-referenced seven banks only prior to the beginning of the class period (December 2007), however, may be deposed.
• The DOJ will consider one-off requests for depositions of individuals who are covered by the above stay terms.

The Department emphasized that the requested stay would apply to the recently-noticed depositions by the NYPL Plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs in the Nypl case plan to file their objection to DOJ’s request by Monday, December 11, 2017.

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.

According to the plaintiffs, 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”.