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London - A former Barclay’s currency trader who was part of the "Cartel" chat room sued the bank for unfair dismissal and whistle-blowing after he was suspended amid a probe into potential foreign-exchange manipulation.
A preliminary hearing in Chris Ashton’s case is scheduled at a London employment tribunal on July 13, according to court records. Ashton declined to comment when reached by phone and his lawyer didn’t respond to a call and text message. A spokesperson for Barclays also declined to comment.
The former co-chief foreign currency dealer in London joins a long list of currency traders to sue their former employers after banks, embroiled in the foreign-exchange market rigging scandal, made widespread firings in the wake of $10bn in fines.
Traders have met mixed results at the tribunal, with some winning claims of unfair dismissal, but failing to obtain rulings that they were penalized for reporting improper conduct, which would have allowed them to seek recoveries beyond an approximate €80 000 cap on recoveries.
Another former Barclay’s currency trader, Jack Murray, has a hearing scheduled on the same day as Ashton.
The foreign-exchange scandal was one of several involving the rigging of key benchmarks that emerged following the financial crisis. Authorities in the US, the UK and Switzerland issued about $10bn in penalties to a group of banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Barclays for their role in FX manipulation.
In a settlement last year, the US Department of Justice said traders from several banks formed "The Cartel" that used online chat rooms to discuss positions before the rates were set and suppress competition in the market.
Identity crisis
Ashton has turned to the UK courts before in a bid to protect his reputation. He lost a complaint over whether he had been improperly identified in regulatory settlements related to the foreign-exchange scandal in January.
Ashton claimed media coverage of the "Cartel" chat room made it easy to work out his name in the Financial Conduct Authority’s settlement documents, even though they were anonymized.
Ashton’s case was the first time the regulator won on the identity issue having lost a number of high-profile applications in 2015.
The FCA is obliged to give people the chance to respond to allegations before publication if they’re identifiable. To avoid this, the agency often uses monikers such as "Trader A" to disguise the individuals.
