Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Terrence Duffy of the CME Group Testifying Before the Senate on May 13, 2014, Effectively Telling the Panel That His Exchanges Are As Pure As the Driven Snow
Evidence of ‘clandestine’ documents has turned up which may make it rough-sledding for one of Wall Street’s biggest go-to law firms in the position they staked out last Friday in Federal court.
R. Tamara de Silva, a lawyer representing three traders in a closely watched Federal class action lawsuit in Chicago, told the court in April that the world’s largest futures exchange has “entered into clandestine contracts with HFTs [high frequency traders] knowing that the activities of the HFTs would adversely affect all other individuals and entities…” (See High Frequency Trading Lawsuit Against CME Group, et al for the full text.)
De Silva and lawyers from O’Rourke & Moody in Chicago are facing off against the 1600-lawyer strong Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP who are known for their splashy motions to dismiss — which come very close to libeling opposing counsel. They did not disappoint in this case.
Last Friday, Skadden Arps told the Federal court on behalf of their clients that the complaint is “reckless,” based on “implausible and unsupported guesswork” and “nearly incomprehensible pleadings that are so poorly constructed as to be functionally illegible.” (Skadden Arps is clearly praying that the Judge in the case, Charles P. Kocoras, has not read Flash Boys, the new Michael Lewis book that details a massive conspiracy involving high frequency traders in U.S. markets.)
As for the purported “clandestine contracts,” Skadden Arps had this to say to the court:
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