MF Global Employees Not Going Down Without A Fight

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They see your firing and raise you a $25 million lawsuit.

Two former employees of MF Global have filed a WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) class-action suit against MF Global Finance USA and MF Global Holdings Ltd. on behalf of themselves and 1,066 employees laid off from the U.S. broker-dealer last Friday. The suit, filed in U.S. Bankrutpcy Court in Manhattan, alleges that MF Global failed to provide 60 days notice of layoffs as required under federal law, and also under the New York WARN Act, which mandates companies give 90 days notice. Todd Thielmann, a former floor broker in Chicago, and Pierre-Yvan Desparois, a vice president in credit risk management in New York, allege in excess of $25 million in damages as a result of the firings, which took place following the bankruptcy filing of MF Global Holdings Ltd. Oct. 31.

"It's important to note that the lawsuit was filed against the holding company, MF Global Holdings Ltd., and not the broker-dealer," said Kent Jarrell, spokesman for the trustee's office that fired the employees and is liquidating the unit. "However, the trustee acted appropriately in connection with the termination of employees as part of the court-mandated liquidation and wind down of MF Global Inc." Charles Ercole, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, said they plan to amend the lawsuit to make clear that one of the defendants is in fact the broker-dealer, MF Global Inc. The plaintiffs are suing for wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, accrued holiday pay, pension, healthcare and other benefits for 60 days (and for 90 days under the New York WARN lawsuit).

MF Global Employees File Lawsuit Claiming $25 Million In Damages [FINS]

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RBS Trader Whose Instant Messages Clearly Show Him (Allegedly) Engaging In Libor Manipulation Not Going Down Without A Fight

One thing that most people probably agree on is that having their instant messages, e-mails, and phone calls end up court would be cause for at least a little embarrassment. Everyone's thrown in an emoticon they aren't proud of, some of us have used company time to chat with significant others about undergarments, and the vast majority of workers have spent a not insignificant amount of the workday talking shit about their superiors. Of course, the humiliation gets ratcheted up a notch in the case of people who 'haha' (and in extreme circumstances "hahahah') their own jokes* which, just for example, involve habitual Libor manipulation. Tan Chi Min knows what we're talking about: “Nice Libor,” Tan said in an April 2, 2008, instant message with traders including Neil Danziger, who also was fired by RBS, and David Pieri. “Our six-month fixing moved the entire fixing, hahahah.” And while having such an exchange become public would be tremendously awkward for most, you know what's really 'hahaha' about this whole thing is that 1) Tan was the one who wanted people to read the above, which was submitted as part of a 231-page affidavit earlier this month and 2) He's trying to use it as evidence that he didn't deserve to be fired. The conversations among traders at RBS and firms including Deutsche Bank AG illustrate how the risk of abuse was embedded in the process for setting Libor, the benchmark for more than $300 trillion of securities worldwide......Tan, the bank’s former Singapore-based head of delta trading for Asia, [is] suing Britain’s third-biggest lender by assets for wrongful dismissal after being fired last year for allegedly trying to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. Tan, who 'allegedly' tried to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, also included this conversations as part of his defense: “What’s the call on Libor,” Jezri Mohideen, then the bank’s head of yen products in Singapore, asked Danziger in an Aug. 21, 2007, chat. “Where would you like it, Libor that is,” Danziger asked, according to a transcript included in Tan’s filings. “Mixed feelings, but mostly I’d like it all lower so the world starts to make a little sense,” another trader responded. “The whole HF world will be kissing you instead of calling me if Libor move lower,” Tan said, referring to hedge funds. “OK, I will move the curve down 1 basis point, maybe more if I can,” Danziger replied. And this: In another conversation on March 27, 2008, Tan called for RBS to raise its Libor submission, saying an earlier lower figure the bank submitted may have cost his team 200,000 pounds. “We need to bump it way up high, highest among all if possible,” Tan said. Tan also asked for a high submission in an Aug. 20, 2007, instant message to Scott Nygaard, global head of RBS’s treasury markets in London. “We want high fix in 3s,” Tan said in the message. “Neil is the one setting the yen Libor in London now and for this week and next.” Also this: “It’s just amazing how Libor fixing can make you that much money or lose if opposite,” Tan said on an Aug. 19, 2007, conversation with traders at other banks, including Deutsche Bank’s Mark Wong. “It’s a cartel now in London.” And this philosophical one, for good measure: “This whole process would make banks pull out of Libor fixing,” Tan said in a May 16, 2011, chat with money markets trader Andrew Smoler. “Question is what is illegal? If making money if bank fix it to suits its own books are illegal... then no point fixing it right? Cuz there will be days when we will def make money fixing it.” The defense rests. RBS Instant Messages Show Libor Rates Skewed for Traders [Bloomberg] *Although actually people who do this probably don't even have the good sense to be ashamed of themselves.

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