Jul 29, 2018
Barclays FX trader seeks to dismiss US charges over HP deal
The US head of foreign exchange trading at Barclays has asked a judge to dismiss criminal charges against him for allegedly defrauding Hewlett-Packard by front-running a £6bn currency deal linked to its takeover of UK software maker Autonomy. Lawyers representing Robert Bogucki, who has been on leave from Barclays for almost two years, argued that the US Department of Justice's case was based on a false premise that the UK bank had a fiduciary duty to HP as its client in the options trade. The contracts signed by Barclays and HP "Specifically disclaimed the existence of any fiduciary relationship between them", the lawyers said in a motion to dismiss submitted to judge Charles Breyer in the district court of the northern district of California late last week. As part of the deal, Mr Bogucki was responsible for buying £6bn of sterling options to protect HP against an adverse move in currency markets as the US company had to pay for the deal in the UK currency. Lawyers for Mr Bogucki said he "Was haggling with an FX specialist at HP over the price Barclays would pay, while HP, for its part, was in discussions with Barclays' competitors".
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