Case
In re: Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation
An Analysis Group team supported Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP and its client Credit Suisse in their successful defense in a long-running antitrust class action over alleged manipulation of foreign exchange currency markets.
In the matter In re: Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, the plaintiffs, including hedge and pension funds, alleged Credit Suisse and 15 other banks agreed to widen the difference between the prices at which they buy and sell currencies (i.e., bid-ask spreads) between 2007 and 2013, in violation of federal antitrust law. Credit Suisse was the sole defendant to proceed to trial after the other banks agreed to settlements.
Managing Principal Divya Mathur testified at the trial on the economics of cartels, and affiliated expert Professor Michael Melvin, Executive Director of the Master of Finance Program at the Rady School of Management at University of California, San Diego, testified about the dynamics of the foreign exchange marketplace and the economics of bid-ask spreads. Their testimony was supported by an Analysis Group team led by Managing Principal Samuel Weglein, Principals Brian Ellman, Chris Feige, and Rebeccah Filsoof, Vice President Hadrien Vasdeboncoeur and Manager Riccardo Marchingiglio.
Following an eight-day trial in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, the jury found that Credit Suisse did not participate in any conspiracy to widen, fix, stabilize, or maintain bid-ask spreads in the forex market.
Meet Our People
Chris Feige
PrincipalMr. Feige specializes in the areas of finance, securities, and financial markets. He has worked on and managed a range of securities and valuation projects in the UK and Europe. Mr. Feige has been appointed as expert in Dutch court to provide valuation and securities claims reports in support of Steinhoff’s global securities settlement, and gave evidence in the Dutch Enterprise Chamber regarding the valuation of Getir. He has also managed teams evaluating shareholder reliance and disclosure materiality and estimating counterfactual share prices in UK Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) Section 90A litigation matters. Mr. Feige has supported experts analyzing the volume of false and spam accounts on Twitter, Twitter’s information security infrastructure, Twitter’s data privacy and compliance with a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent decree, and share price and valuation issues on behalf of Twitter in Twitter v. Musk in which Elon Musk eventually purchased Twitter at his initial offer price. In cases involving alleged market manipulation in the foreign exchange (FX) and IBOR markets, he has analyzed trade data and evaluated alleged manipulation strategies. Mr. Feige worked on USA v. Richard Usher, et al., and the Foreign Exchange Class Antitrust Litigation, analyzing FX trade and chat data, as well as competition issues; preparing experts for testimony at trial; and providing data analyses and consulting support to counsel throughout the projects. He has also worked on a range of international arbitration cases, including valuation, damages, and competition analyses. In addition, he has developed complex valuation models, including discounted cash flow models, and analyzed asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, and other securitized products in support of expert testimony in a number of bankruptcy and damages matters. Mr. Feige has also worked on a number of international arbitrations valuing defaulted sovereign debt, expropriated oil fields, and retail operations. His work has been published in several industry journals.