Credit Suisse currency rigging claims go before U.S. jury By Reuters

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) – A U.S. jury started deliberating on Wednesday at a civil trial the place Credit score Suisse Group AG stands accused of conspiring with the world’s largest banks to rig costs within the international alternate market between 2007 and 2013. Credit score Suisse is the final financial institution defendant remaining within the class motion introduced by forex traders in 2013, after 15 others reached settlements value $2.31 billion. The traders allege that Credit score Suisse merchants shared nonpublic pricing info with merchants at different banks.

Throughout the trial in Manhattan federal court docket which started on Oct. 11, jurors heard testimony that 5 banks and two merchants had pleaded responsible to forex-related antitrust conspiracies, and noticed transcripts from chat rooms with names similar to “The Cartel” the place traders say merchants colluded.

The jury will resolve whether or not Credit score Suisse participated in a conspiracy or a number of conspiracies to rig the international forex market, and if that’s the case, how lengthy every scheme lasted and which of the 15 different banks have been concerned.

Christopher Burke, a lawyer for the traders, urged jurors in closing arguments on Wednesday to search out that the financial institution engaged in a single conspiracy with fifteen banks over six years.

“There was a tradition of collusion at Credit score Suisse,” he stated, including that chat room transcripts present the financial institution’s merchants sharing details about the unfold between the purchase and promote worth for currencies “each different day.”

Credit score Suisse’s legal professional Herbert Washer argued that merchants chatting in separate rooms about totally different forex pairs couldn’t be a part of the identical conspiracy, and that there was no proof Credit score Suisse merchants ever acted on the chats.

“The place’s the proof that this was greater than discuss?” he stated.

The sooner settlements within the case adopted regulatory probes that culminated in additional than $10 billion of fines for a number of banks, and the convictions or indictments of some merchants. The case is In Re International Change Benchmark Charges Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Courtroom, Southern District of New York, No. 13-07789.