Hausfeld – Financial Treason & Crime

Dean Seal, 17 April 2020

Counsel for investors and Credit Suisse cited the COVID-19 pandemic Monday when they asked a New York federal judge to push their discovery deadlines in a suit over alleged foreign exchange market manipulation by nine weeks.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield, attorneys for both sides in the long-running litigation said that in light of the threat to public health posed by the novel coronavirus, as well as the disruptions it has caused in air travel, continued discovery efforts would be risky and exceedingly difficult. Continue reading “Article: Pandemic May Disrupt Discovery In Credit Suisse Forex Case”

03/05/201703/20/2021

Article: BlackRock, PIMCO said to plan new front in bank FX-rigging cases

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BlackRock, PIMCO said to plan new front in bank FX-rigging cases

Bloomberg, 05 March 2017

Some of the world’s biggest investors are working with a U.S. law firm to prepare a fresh wave of litigation against banks accused of rigging foreign-exchange markets.

BlackRock, Pacific Investment Management Co. and hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management are working with law firm Quinn Emanuel to recover losses they blame on the manipulation of currency benchmarks, according to two people familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified because nothing has been filed.

The target banks, including Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, J.P. Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and UBS Group, have been fined billions of dollars for conspiring to rig FX benchmarks. The firm, which will probably file lawsuits in London and New York, is trying to attract additional investors, the people said.

Quinn Emanuel’s clients will likely opt out of an existing New York class action over currency manipulation that won a total of about $2 billion in settlements from HSBC, Barclays, RBS, Goldman Sachs Group and others in 2015, according to people with knowledge of the firm’s strategy.

Opting out of the class action would allow large investors to seek higher settlements by pursuing a global strategy that includes the recovery of losses from London, where a significant portion of global trades are settled. The existing class action is limited to transactions that took place in New York.

The two law firms that are running the existing U.S. lawsuit, Hausfeld and Scott + Scott, won’t give up control of the case without a fight.

In an April 24 letter emailed to U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield, lawyers complained that “certain unnamed law firms were sending false and misleading communications to class members to persuade them to opt out of the settlements,” the judge said in a court order Thursday. She set a May 12 deadline for the two firms to make a formal request as to what she should do in response.

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08/18/201505/18/2020

Article: Nine banks to pay $2 billion to US investors in rate-rigging case

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Nine banks to pay $2 billion to US investors in rate-rigging case

Pinsent Masons, 18 August 2015

Nine of the world’s largest banks have agreed to pay a total of $2 billion in compensation to investors in the US over the manipulation of exchange rates, and to cooperate in litigation against 12 other defendants.

Law firm Hausfeld announced that settlements have been reached with Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS on behalf of investors.

The banks will now work with the investors in continuing litigation against Credit Suisse Group, Credit Suisse, Credit Suisse Securities, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Bank Securities, Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley & Co, Morgan Stanley & Co. International, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi., RBC Capital Markets, Société Générale and Standard Chartered. Several of these banks were added to the action last month based on facts found during the investigation, Hausfeld said.

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08/14/201503/20/2021

Article: Barclays, RBS and others settle U$2bn currency-rigging lawsuits

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Barclays, RBS and others settle U$2bn currency-rigging lawsuits

Jonathan Jones, 14 August 2015

HSBC (LON:HSBA), Barclays (LON:BARC), Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) and two other banks settled on yet more payouts for currency-rigging.

The banks settled with US investors, agreeing to a payout which took the overall total paid to the investors to US$2bn (£1.28bn) from nine banks.

US heavyweight Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas also settled.

It’s another round of payouts after six banks, including Barclays and RBS were, in May, ordered to pay US$6bn (£3.84bn) by UK and US authorities.

At the time, Barclays was hit with the biggest bank fine in British history.

American investors claimed the banks joined together to manipulate the US$5.3trn a day foreign exchange market.

Legal firm Hausfeld, which represented the investors, said that the agreements were preliminary and subject to approval by US District Judge Lorna Schofield.

As yet, there has been no information on how the sum would be divided between the banks if passed.

“In addition to the billions of dollars in compensation, these settling banks have agreed to cooperate with investors in their continuing litigation” against other institutions, Hausfeld said.

The banks yet to settle are Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), Societe Generale, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, RBC Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

The US$2bn includes earlier settlements of US$800mln, with JPMorgan, Bank of America, UBS and Citigroup.

“While the recoveries here are tremendous, they are just the beginning,” said Hausfeld chairman Michael Hausfeld.

“Investors around the world should take note of the significant recoveries secured in the United States and recognize that these settlements cover a fraction of the world’s largest financial market,” he said.

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05/20/201503/18/2021

Article: Barclays, Citicorp, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS Enter Guilty Pleas Stemming from Collusion and Fraud in Foreign Exchange Market; Banks Agree to Pay More Than $5.8 Billion in Fines for Misconduct

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Barclays, Citicorp, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS Enter Guilty Pleas Stemming from Collusion and Fraud in Foreign Exchange Market; Banks Agree to Pay More Than $5.8 Billion in Fines for Misconduct

GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 20 May 2015

Hausfeld, a global claimants’ firm dedicated to handling complex litigation, announced today that five defendants in In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, 13-cv-7789 (S.D.N.Y.), have agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to plead guilty to violating U.S. law through their conduct in the foreign exchange (“FX”) market. Barclays PLC, Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC pled guilty to violating U.S. antitrust laws. UBS AG pled guilty to wire and mail fraud after the DOJ determined that UBS’s misconduct in the FX market had breached UBS’s prior non-prosecution agreement for LIBOR-related misconduct. The guilty pleas entered today reflect widespread collusion in the FX market over a period of several years.

In addition to the guilty pleas, the banks agreed to pay more than $2.7 billion to the Department of Justice to resolve the DOJ’s FX investigations. The Federal Reserve imposed further fines of more than $1.6 billion on affiliates of the same five banks and a fine of $205 million on Bank of America Corporation for “unsafe and unsound practices.” Barclays will also pay a $1.3 billion fine as part of settlements with the New York Department of Financial Services, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Financial Conduct Authority. Continue reading “Article: Barclays, Citicorp, JPMorgan, RBS, and UBS Enter Guilty Pleas Stemming from Collusion and Fraud in Foreign Exchange Market; Banks Agree to Pay More Than $5.8 Billion in Fines for Misconduct”

09/05/200805/18/2020

Article: Complaint Over Auction Rate Securities Market Details Brokers’ Greed

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Complaint Over Auction Rate Securities Market Details Brokers’ Greed

Courthouse News Service, 5 September 2008

In a federal filing replete with lurid examples of document destruction, inside trading, naked greed, lies and market manipulation, the City of Baltimore joins the long list of plaintiffs demanding treble damages from Citigroup, UBS, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Lehman Bros., Wachovia and other banks that conspired to prop up the auction rate securities market, until it collapsed in a $300 billion rubble heap from which investors are still digging out.

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