(Bloomberg) - Citigroup Inc. won dismissal of a $112 million suit by a trader who claimed the bank falsely implicated him in a US criminal probe of price-fixing in the foreign exchange market.
Rohan Ramchandani was one of three FX traders in an online chat group called “The Cartel,” who were found not guilty of rigging the market in 2018. Ramchandani subsequently sued his former employer, accusing Citi of lying to regulators and leaking false information about him to scapegoat him during the government investigation.
US District Judge Victor Marrero in New York on Thursday threw out the suit. The ruling was noted in a court docket for the case, but the reasoning for the judge’s decision wasn’t immediately available.
Lawyers for Ramchandani didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
In his 2019 suit, Ramchandani claimed Citi pinned a target on his back for prosecutors to limit damage to itself and protect more senior executives from charges.
Citi argued in court papers that Ramchandani’s case should be dismissed because the former trader hadn’t put forth enough evidence to support his claim that the bank maliciously spurred an unwarranted investigation and criminal charges by the Justice Department.
Ramchandani was charged along with former JPMorgan Chase & Co. trader Richard Usher and former Barclays Plc spot FX trading head Chris Ashton. The Justice Department accused the three of using online chatrooms to coordinate trades and manipulate prices. The three men were acquitted by a New York jury.
Citi in 2015 pleaded guilty to a single criminal charge of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids on trading of US dollars and euros, paying a $925 million fine to resolve its part in a sprawling price-fixing scandal.
Marrero will likely issue a written opinion explaining his decision to dismiss the case after the parties submit suggestions for redacting confidential information, according to the docket notation. Both sides agreed that some of the evidence in the case, including testimony of Justice Department lawyers and Citi executives as well as a stipulation between Ramchandani and the US Office of the Comptroller of Currency, should not be made public.
The case is Ramchandani v. Citigroup Inc., 19-cv-09124, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with background on the case.)
By Bob Van Voris
