Case Details

Year Initiated/Committed

2008

Year Resolved

2018

Settlement Amount

$100 million

Court

n/a

Docket Number

n/a

Lead State

AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV

Participating States

AK, AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV

Defendant(s)

Citibank N.A.

Case Description

Forty-two plaintiff states reached a $100 million settlement with Citibank for fraudulent conduct involving interest rate manipulation that had a significant impact on consumers and financial markets around the world. UBS’ fraudulent conduct involved the manipulation of LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate). LIBOR is a benchmark interest rate that affects financial instruments worth trillions of dollars and has a far-reaching impact on global markets and consumers. The states allege that Citibank misrepresented the integrity of the LIBOR benchmark by concealing, misrepresenting, and failing to disclose that Citibank at times made USD LIBOR submissions to avoid negative publicity and protect the reputation of the bank, and that Citibank made LIBOR submissions to benefit its own derivative trading positions. This led to millions in unjust gains for Citibank when governmental entities and not-for-profit organizations entered into swaps and other financial instruments with Citibank — without knowing that Citibank and other banks on the USD-LIBOR-setting panel were manipulating their LIBOR submissions. Governmental and not-for-profit entities with LIBOR-linked swaps and other financial instruments with Citibank were eligible to receive a distribution from the settlement fund. The states have entered into settlements addressing the same conduct with UBS (November 2018), Deutsche Bank (October 2017) and Barclays Bank (August 2016) for a total of $488 million.