Credit score Suisse forex rigging claims go earlier than 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 buyers in 2013, after 15 others reached settlements value $2.31 billion. The buyers allege that Credit score Suisse merchants shared nonpublic pricing data with merchants at different banks.

Through the trial in Manhattan federal courtroom 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 corresponding to “The Cartel” the place buyers 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.

Whereas the jury won’t decide how any conspiracy affected market members or award damages on a class-wide foundation, their findings could also be utilized by buyers in their very own lawsuits in opposition to the financial institution.

The jury will resume deliberations on Thursday.

Christopher Burke, a lawyer for the buyers, 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 lawyer 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 Court docket, Southern District of New York, No. 13-07789.