Four more lenders named in bond price-fixing complaint
LONDON/NEW YORK, April 12, (RTRS): Investors who are suing a group of traders and banks, saying they colluded to fix bond prices, have named four more banks as defendants.
An amended copy of their lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Manhattan on Monday, shows BNP Paribas, HSBC, RBC and TD Bank have been added to the suit, which alleges that various banks and individuals manipulated the US dollar-denominated sovereign, supranational and agency (SSA) bond market.
Bond trader Gary McDonald, who worked at three of the banks, has also been named as a defendant in the amended lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges McDonald was also involved in colluding to fix bond prices.
They join Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Agricole, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Nomura as defendants, along with individual defendants Hiren Gudka, Bhardeep Singh Heer, Amandeep Singh Manku and Shailen Pau, who have been named in previous lawsuits.
Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Nomura declined to comment. Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, TD and RBC did not respond to requests for comment.
Pau and Heer’s lawyers declined to comment, while lawyers for Gudka and Manku did not immediately respond to requests for comment. McDonald could not immediately be reached for comment.
The amended lawsuit says lawyers for the investors have obtained transcripts of hundreds of electronic chats between the alleged conspirators, covering over 300 trading days.