Judge throws out Citigroup ex-trader’s lawsuit tied to foreign exchange probe

7:22 pm Thursday, July 20th, 2023

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge threw out a $112 million lawsuit by a former senior London-based trader for Citigroup, who accused the bank of falsely implicating him in a criminal probe into foreign exchange price fixing after firing him.

The dismissal of Rohan Ramchandani’s civil lawsuit by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero was disclosed in a docket entry on Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

Marrero plans to release his written decision after Citigroup and Ramchandani agree which information should be kept confidential.

David Lurie, a lawyer for Ramchandani, declined to comment. Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos said the bank is pleased with the decision.

Ramchandani, the former European head of Citigroup’s foreign exchange spot trading desk, was acquitted by a Manhattan jury in Oct. 2018 of scheming to rig benchmark exchange rates by sharing information through an online chatroom called “The Cartel.”

Two other London-based traders, Chris Ashton of Barclays and Richard Usher of JPMorgan Chase, were also found not guilty at the same trial.

One year later, Ramchandani sued Citigroup, saying it fired him without cause in January 2014 amid a global probe into foreign exchange price fixing, and then shared false and “gravely derogatory” claims against him with law enforcement.

Citigroup, based in New York, agreed in May 2015 to plead guilty and pay a $925 million criminal fine to resolve its portion of the probe.

Ramchandani accused Citigroup of entering its plea in part to shift blame away from senior managers and officers.

In seeking a dismissal of Ramchandani’s lawsuit, Citigroup said it did not “scapegoat” him to reduce its own liability, and said there was no basis for Ramchandani to claim that the bank “initiated” his prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The case is Ramchandani v. Citigroup Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 19-09124.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)