Investors hire convicted trader to help fight forex case against banks
Former BNP Paribas employee who pleaded guilty to foreign exchange rigging taken on as $400-an-hour consultant
A former BNP Paribas trader who pleaded guilty to rigging foreign exchange benchmarks has been hired as a $400-an-hour consultant by investors suing banks including Barclays and UBS for alleged forex manipulation.
Allianz, Pimco and a number of other investors have brought a multimillion pound lawsuit against eight banks including Barclays, Citigroup and HSBC in London’s High Court. They have also brought a parallel lawsuit against global banks, including Bank of America, in the Southern District of New York.
According to court documents filed with the Southern District of New York court, the investors bringing the lawsuit are set to hire Jason Katz, a former Barclays and BNP Paribas currency trader who in 2017 pleaded guilty in the US to price-fixing charges with unnamed conspirators.
Lawyers for 14 banks involved in the lawsuits have filed court documents asking a US judge to make a court order preventing Mr Katz, who may also be called by either side as a factual witness in a trial, from seeing confidential information in the lawsuit. They claimed his involvement runs the risk of “interfering with the recollection of a key fact witness”.
The filing also claims that Mr Katz’s proposed pay “is excessive by any reasonable measure” given the former trader is “currently unemployed” and “cannot credibly claim that his services are worth $400 an hour to anybody other than the plaintiffs”.
Mr Katz told his sentencing hearing in 2017 that he was a “full-time stay at home dad” who “spent the last few years learning about growing and building a real estate business”.
The banks say that they first learnt of the claimants’ retention of Mr Katz after an application was made to London’s High Court for permission to show him confidential bank documents.
Boris Bronfentrinker, partner at Quinn Emanuel, a law firm that is acting for Allianz said: “We can confirm that the UK claimants have made an application to add Jason Katz to the confidentiality ring in the circumstances where the banks have objected to his inclusion. They are trying to preclude him from accessing documents which are necessary for him to assist the claimants in pursuing their claims against the banks.”
Barclays declined to comment.
Probes by US, UK and Swiss regulators into alleged forex manipulation have led to a dozen banks paying almost $12bn in fines around the world and led to several traders facing criminal charges in the US.