Institutional Investor Securities Blog

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is refusing to throw out the shareholder securities fraud lawsuit filed against Deutsche Bank (DB) and three individuals over their alleged role in marketing residential mortgage-backed securities and mortgage-backed securities before the economic crisis. The court found that the plaintiffs, led by Building Trades United Pension Fund, the Steward International Enhanced Index Fund, and the Steward Global Equity Income Fund, provided clear allegations that omissions and misstatements were made and there had been a scam with intent to defraud.

The RMBS lawsuit accuses Deutsche Bank of putting out misleading and false statements regarding its financial health prior to the financial crisis. The plaintiffs contend that the financial firm created and sold MBS it was aware were toxic, while overstating how well it could handle risk, and did not write down fast enough the securities that had dropped in value. Because of this, claim the shareholders, the investment bank’s stock dropped 87% in under 24 months.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest said that the plaintiffs did an adequate job of alleging that even as Deutsche Bank talked in public about its low risk lending standards, senior employees at the firm were given information showing the opposite. She said that there are allegations of recklessness that are “plausible.” The district court also found that the complaint adequately alleged control person and antifraud violations involving defendants Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann, Chief Financial Officer Anthony Di Iorio, and Chief Risk Officer Hugo Banziger, who are accused of making material misstatements about the risks involved in investing in CDOS and RMBS while knowing they were less conservative than what investors might think. Claims against defendant ex-Supervisory Board Chairman Clemens Borsig, however, were thrown out due to the plaintiffs’ failure to allege that he made an actual misstatement.

The MBS case is looking for investors that purchased Deutsche stock between January 2007 and January 2009.

Deutsche Bank must face shareholder lawsuit: judge, Chicago Tribune, March 27, 2013

IBEW Local 90 Pension Fund v. Deutsche Bank AG (PDF)

More Blog Posts:
Deutsche Bank Settles Massachusetts CDO Case for $17.5 Million, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, April 1, 2013

Barclays LIBOR Manipulation Scam Places Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and UBS Under The Investigation Microscope, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, July 16, 2012

The London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (LIBOR) manipulation scandal involving Barclays Bank (BCS-P) has now opened up a global probe, as investigators from the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia try to figure out exactly what happened. While Barclays may have the settled the allegations for $450 million with the UK’s Financial Services Authority, the US Department of Justice, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, now a number of other financial firms are under investigation including UBS AG (UBS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group (CS), Citigroup Inc., Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC-PA), Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG), Rabobank Groep NV, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (MFG), Societe Generale SA, RP Martin Holdings Ltd., Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS).

In the last few weeks, the accuracy of LIBOR, which is the average borrowing cost when banks in Britain loan money to each other, has come into question in the wake of allegations that Barclays and other big banks have been rigging it by submitting artificially low borrowing estimates. Considering that LIBOR is a benchmark interest rates that affects hundreds of trillions of dollars in financial contracts, including floating-rate mortgages, interest-rate swaps, and corporate loans globally, the fact that this type of financial fudging may be happening on a wide scale basis is disturbing.

“It’s my understanding the total financial paper effected by LIBOR is close to $500 trillion dollars. This is a half-quadrillion dollars if you are wondering about the next step up,” said Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD, LLP Founder and Institutional Investment Fraud Attorney William Shepherd.

Barclays contends that its manipulation of borrowing estimates could not alone have dramatically influenced the final labor rate. The bank claims that it submitted low borrowing costs that were artificial because it suspected that this is what other banks were doing and it didn’t want to look like it was in financial trouble by comparison.

“In the US, these allegations could fall under the Sherman Anti-trust and/or the Clayton Unfair Trade Practices Acts, said Securities Lawyer Shepherd. “The recovery possible under such legislation could reach triple damages, plus legal fees and costs.”

A slew of securities lawsuits, including class actions and regulator complaints, against some of these banks under investigation, are likely. CNN reports that already, attorneys general in Massachusetts, Florida, New York, and Connecticut are investigating the LIBOR rate-setting scandal. There may be a variety of plaintiff types, including municipal governments and investment firms.

“Institutions are usually the subject of such actions, which are also federal crime statutes, but individuals can also be held liable,” said Stockbroker Fraud Attorney Shepherd. “The allegations cover more than just price-fixing or predatory pricing and involve multiple acts of price manipulation among institutions (legally an “enterprise”), such that racketeering (RICO) laws could also apply.”

Banks belonging to the LIBOR panels will likely become defendants of criminal complaints, regulator complaints, and huge class actions. For now, they in turn, have been blaming the central banks and regulators.

States weighing Libor scandal suit, CNN, July 16, 2012

Who Else Is Under Investigation for Libor Manipulation?, The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2012

The Worst Banking Scandal Yet?, Bloomberg, July 12, 2012

More Blog Posts:
$1.2 Billion of MF Global Inc.’s Clients Money Still Missing, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, December 10, 2011

Ex-Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta Pleads Not Guilty to Insider Trading Charges, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, October 26, 2011

Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing Must Pay $20.5M Arbitration Award in Bayou Ponzi Scam, Upholds 2nd Circuit, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, July 14, 2012

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California says that the auction securities lawsuit filed by Anschutz Corp. against Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and a number of credit rating agencies can proceed. Anschutz bought DBSI ARS between July 206 and August 2007 through Credit Suisse. The plaintiff is seeking damages and other relief related to the ARS it bought that was underwritten by DBSI, which also served as its broker-dealer.

Anschutz contends that it bought the securities believing that they were liquid because of the DBSI’s deceptive and manipulative activities. The plaintiff claims that by serving as market maker, DBSI ensured that the auctions would be successful as long as it kept supporting the bids. To make the ARS appear liquid, DBSI also allegedly “manipulated the market” by putting in support bids for every auction that the securities were involved in as well as for other ARS for which it was the lead or sole broker-dealer. When DBSI stopped making bids in July 2007, the auctions failed the following month. Anschutz contends that not only did DBSI know this would happen, but also, by acting as the only broker-dealer that could take part in certain securities’ auctions, the financial firm made it seem as if there was enough third party demand and was able to lower the auctions’ interest rates.

Regarding its claims against rating agencies, Anschutz says that the latter relaxed their rating system to get DBSI’s business. The plaintiff contends that the AAA ratings that the agencies issued were misleading and false but knew that was the way to get paid. Anschutz also says that the agencies should have known or knew that DBSI was creating an artificial market for the ARS.

Related Web Resources:
Deutsche Bank, Rating Agencies Fail To Topple Investor Suit Over ARS Activities, BNA Broker/Dealer Compliance Report, March 30, 2011

Anschutz Corp. v. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.

More Blog Posts:
Akamai Technologies Inc’s ARS Lawsuit Against Deutsche Bank Can Proceed, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, March 4, 2011

Credit Suisse Broker Previously Convicted for Selling High Risk ARS is Barred from Future Securities Law Violations, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, February 12, 2011

NASAA Says Investors with Frozen Auction-Rate Securities Should Ask Investment Firms About Buyback Opportunities, Stockbroker Fraud Blog, November 19, 2008

Continue reading "Anschutz Corp.’s Securities Fraud Lawsuit Against Deutsche Bank and Credit Rating Agencies Over Their Alleged Mishandling of Auction-Rate Securities Can Proceed, Says District Court" »

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts says that, under the 1934 Securities Exchange Act and the Massachusetts’ Uniform Securities Act, Akamai Technologies Inc.’s (AKAM) auction-rate securities lawsuit that seeks to hold Deutsche Bank AG liable for $200 million in losses can proceed. The judge ruled that the Internet content delivery firm had properly pleaded a material misrepresentation or omission in violation of Section 10(b) of the '34 Securities Exchange Act, which is necessary for a control person claim under Section 20(a). The court also held that Akamai clearly pleaded Deutsche Bank's control over Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the subsidiary that allegedly advised the company to buy the toxic ARS.

Per the court, DBS was the broker and investment adviser for Akamai Securities Corp. and Akamai Technologies Inc. Akamai told the investment adviser that it wanted to put money in securities that were liquid and safe so it could access the funds when needed. DBS told Akamai that ARS were safe, liquid, and never failed even though the financial firm allegedly knew that they had done so before and, in fact, posed a higher level of risk than what it led Akamai to believe. Even in August 2007, when Deutsche Bank knew that the demand for ARS was going down and the risk of ARS auctions failing was rising, the investment adviser still allegedly did not notify Akamai that the market was changing.

When the ARS market did fall in 2008, Akamai was left with over $200 million in illiquid securities. Its securities fraud lawsuit also claims that even as DBS continued to claim that the securities were liquid and safe, resulting in Akamai increasing its ARS investments, the investment bank was decreasing its own exposure to the market.

Related Web Resources:
Deutsche Bank Loses Bid to Dismiss Control Person Claims by ARS Investor, BNA

Frozen in time, Boston.com, February 16, 2010

Akamai Technologies, Inc. and Akamai Securities Corp. v. Deutsche Bank AG (PDF)

Massachusetts’ Uniform Securities Act

More Blog Posts:
Credit Suisse Broker Previously Convicted for Selling High Risk ARS is Barred from Future Securities Law Violations, Institutional Investors Securities Blog, February 12, 2011

Merrill Lynch Doesn’t Have to Arbitrate ARS Claims by LSED, Says Appeals Court, Institutional Investors Securities Blog, December 22, 2010

Citigroup Global Markets to Pay Back $95.5M Over ARS Sold to LandAmerica Exchange Fund, Institutional Investors Securities Blog, November 11, 2010

Continue reading "Akamai Technologies Inc’s ARS Lawsuit Against Deutsche Bank Can Proceed" »