Tag: Leonard

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Article: Citi, Barclays Beat Sovereign Bond Manipulation Claims on Appeal

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Citi, Barclays Beat Sovereign Bond Manipulation Claims on Appeal

Mike Leonard, 19 July 2021

Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc, and other top banks got a federal appeals court in Manhattan on Monday to uphold their win against antitrust claims over an alleged scheme to rig the multitrillion-dollar market for bonds backed by foreign governments and multinational institutions.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a pair of rulings by Judge Edgardo Ramos, who previously dismissed allegations that the banks manipulated the $9 trillion to $15 trillion market for “supranational, sub-sovereign, and agency” bonds, or SSA bonds.

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Article: The Legal and Economic Implications from Recent UK Spoofing Cases

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The Legal and Economic Implications from Recent UK Spoofing Cases.

Yan Cao, Marlene Haas, Greg Leonard, 23 March 2021

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”)[1] has in recent years intensified its efforts in securities and commodities markets to detect and pursue the type of disruptive trading behaviour called “spoofing.” This emphasis coincides with a similarly increasing focus by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and the US Department of Justice (“DOJ”) on spoofing cases in the US. Spoofing may take different forms, but usually involves the placing of non-bona fide orders, often of large quantity, on one side of the market while trying to execute a bona fide order on the other side of the market. Once the bona fide order has been executed, the trader cancels the non-bona fide orders quickly. To date, more than 40 enforcement actions targeting spoofing have been filed against individuals and companies by US regulators and more than 5 have been filed by UK regulators. In February 2019, Julia Hoggett, the FCA’s Director of Market Oversight, delivered a speech about the FCA’s commitment to tackling market abuse, calling compliance with such rules “critical to the integrity and health of our financial markets.” Continue reading “Article: The Legal and Economic Implications from Recent UK Spoofing Cases”

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Article: Citi Must Face Former Trader’s Malicious-Prosecution Lawsuit

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Citi Must Face Former Trader’s Malicious-Prosecution Lawsuit

Bob Van Voris, Jenny Surane and Michael Leonard, Bloomberg News, 12 March 2021

(Bloomberg) — One of three British traders acquitted of using an online chatroom to fix prices in the foreign exchange market can go forward with a lawsuit claiming that Citigroup Inc. “fabricated” a baseless case against him, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero on Thursday rejected the bank’s attempt to have the case dismissed. Former Citigroup trader Rohan Ramchandani sued in 2019 claiming damages of $112 million.

Read More: Citigroup Framed Me, Acquitted Forex Trader Claims in Suit

The ruling clears the way for Ramchandani, a former London-based trader, to move forward with the malicious-prosecution suit, which he brought in New York against a group of the bank’s affiliates after his acquittal.

“Mr. Ramchandani’s claims of malicious prosecution are without merit and we will contest them vigorously,” Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokeswoman for the bank, said in an emailed statement.

A Manhattan federal jury in October 2018 found Ramchandani and two other British traders working for other banks — a group dubbed “the Cartel” — not guilty of conspiring through online chatrooms to manipulate the $5.1-trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc pleaded guilty to currency manipulation in 2015 as part of a $5.8 billion settlement with the DOJ.

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