Barclays PLC, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup etc. BCS, Securities Lawsuit

Company:	Barclays PLC, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup etc.
Ticker Symbol:	BCS,
Class Period:	Jan-1-05 to Dec-31-09
Date Filed:	Jul-6-12
Lead Plaintiff Deadline:	Sep-4-12
Court:	Southern District of New York
Allegations:

New York, NY: An American investor has filed a securities class-action lawsuit against British banking giant Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and a group of other banking defendants claiming the banks' alleged manipulation of the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) cost investors millions of dollars in a practice that began as early as 2005.

Barclays, along with other defendant banks routinely attempted to manipulate the Euribor by making false reports to the European Banking Federation, a non-profit organization charged with setting the daily Euribor rate, which is in turn used to set interest rates for trillions of dollars of transactions each year.

Euribor rates were used to set prices in a wide range of financial instruments including futures contracts, options, credit default swaps, and collateral debt obligation among others.

According to the complaint, the manipulation negatively impacted any institutional investor group that participated in any transaction tied to Euribor while the defendants were manipulating the rates.

The named plaintiff in the suit is a principal of an Illinois trading company involved in the purchase and sale of futures contracts, including Euribor futures contracts and was financial harmed by the alleged conspiracy to fix the Euribor rates.

If approved by the court as a class action, the suit would represent all U.S.-based investors who purchased or sold Euribor-related financial instruments from January 1, 2005 through December 31, 2009.

Last month, The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that the London-based financial giant and its subsidiary will pay more than $200 million, the largest civil fine in the commission's history, to settle the allegations.

In addition, Barclays has agreed to pay the United States Department of Justice a $160 million criminal fine as a result of its conduct. However, that settlement and criminal fines will not compensate consumers or institutional investors who may have overpaid for a wide range of financial transactions related to Euribor.

The other defendants named in the complaint include Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, HSBC Holdings; HSBC Holding PLC; HSBC Bank PLC, Cooperative Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank, BA; USS, A.G., and USB (Luxembourg) S.A.

The suit, filed July 6, 2012 in United States District Court of the Southern District of New York, accuses the defendants of the violation of The Sherman Act, violations of the Commodities Exchange Act among other charges, and seeks compensatory and recessionary damages for the plaintiffs.

If you acquired the securities of the defendants during the Class Period you may, no later than the Lead Plaintiff Deadline shown above, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff through counsel of your choice. You may also choose to remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff must meet certain requirements.

Barclays PLC, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup etc. BCS, Securities Fraud Legal Help

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Published on Jul-9-12