A former trader for BNP Paribas who once pleaded guilty to rigging FX benchmarks is now making a living in a new way: charging $400 per hour to act as a "consultant" for investors who are suing banks for forex manipulation.
Hey, it's great work if you can get it...
The trader, Jason Katz, is being hired by Allianz, Pimco and a number of other investors who have brought a multimillion dollar lawsuit against banks that include Citigroup and Barclays in London's High Court. Similar lawsuits have been filed against Bank of America, among other banks, in the Southern District of New York.
According to FT, lawyers for the banks involved in the lawsuit recently filed documents asking a judge to prevent Katz from seeing confidential information in the lawsuit. They are claiming his involvement could be “interfering with the recollection of a key fact witness”.
They also argue that Katz's $400 per hour fee is "excessive by any reasonable measure" due to the fact that he's unemployed. Katz “cannot credibly claim that his services are worth $400 an hour to anybody other than the plaintiffs,” the court filing says.
Katz is a "full time stay at home dad," according to statements he made during his 2017 sentencing.
Boris Bronfentrinker, lawyer for Allianz, said: “We can confirm that the UK claimants have made an application to add Jason Katz to the confidentiality ring in the circumstances where the banks have objected to his inclusion. They are trying to preclude him from accessing documents which are necessary for him to assist the claimants in pursuing their claims against the banks.”
The lawsuits against the banks are part of allegations of forex manipulation first raised in probes by U.S., Swiss and U.K. regulators. So far, they have led to $12 billion in fines and several traders facing criminal charges in the U.S.
We have documented numerous arrests related to FX manipulation over the last few years, including here, here and here.
