NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Two leading national firms and one international firm were appointed co-lead counsel today in a multi-trillion dollar class action lawsuit accusing many of the nation’s biggest banks of harming both the U.S. government and investors by rigging the $13 trillion market for securities sold by the United States Department of the Treasury. The three firms that will lead the litigation are Quinn Emanuel, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and Labaton Sucharow. The class action suit is being brought on behalf of pension funds and other institutional investors who are large purchasers and sellers of US Treasury Bonds.
The appointment, announced today by U.S. District Court Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the Southern District of New York, is the latest development in a slew of class action lawsuits alleging misconduct in Treasury bond auctions. The United States Treasury borrows money by selling various debt instruments, known as Treasury bonds or Treasury securities. These sales take place in market auctions conducted throughout the year, and a select group of banks – known as primary dealers – bids in every one of these auctions. Treasury bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, are viewed as the world’s safest investment, and the market for US Treasuries is the world’s deepest, most liquid and most important financial market. The over four dozen class action complaints filed to date allege that banks conspired to manipulate auction prices in order to boost their own profits.
“The U.S. treasury market is one of the deepest and most trusted securities markets in the world, and no institution should be in a position to rig the system in order to increase profits,” said Steven J. Toll, Managing Partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Co-Chair of the firm's Securities Fraud & Investor Protection practice group.
“It is important that Treasury securities are priced fairly for both the pension funds who invest in them and the US Treasury which uses the proceeds to finance the operations of our government,” said Jay Himes, Partner at Labaton Sucharow, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Antitrust and Competition Litigation Practice.
“We are honored that the Court has selected us to co-lead this important litigation on behalf of pension funds and other institutional investors,” said Faith Gay, Partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Co-Chair of the firm’s National Trial Practice.
The lead attorneys handling this case for Quinn Emanuel are Faith Gay, Daniel Brockett, Steig Olson, Sascha Rand, and Christine Chung. The lead attorneys handling this case for Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC are J. Douglas Richards, Steven J. Toll, Michael B. Eisenkraft and Carol V. Gilden. The lead attorneys handling this case for Labaton Sucharow are Jay Himes and Greg Asciolla.
Among the banks named as defendants in the class action litigation thus far are Bank Of Nova Scotia, New York Agency; Barclays Capital Inc.; BMO Capital Markets Corp.; BNP Paribas Securities Corp.; Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.; Citigroup Global Markets Inc.; Commerz Markets LLC; Countrywide Securities Corp.; Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC; Daiwa Capital Markets America Inc.; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; HSBC Securities (USA) Inc.; Jefferies LLC; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC; Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated; Bank of America Corp.; Mizuho Securities USA Inc.; Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC; Nomura Securities International, Inc.; RBC Capital Markets, LLC; RBS Securities Inc.; SG Americas Securities, LLC; TD Securities (USA) LLC; and UBS Securities LLC.