(Reuters) — A former Deutsche Bank AG trader whose conviction for rigging the Libor rate index was overturned has launched a $30 million lawsuit in New York, accusing the German bank of malicious prosecution for scapegoating him .
Gavin Black, who worked on the bank’s money markets and derivatives desk in London, said Deutsche Bank and others conspired to commit “malicious prosecution and abuse of process”, which led to his unjustified conviction.
Mr. Black wants at least $30 million plus punitive damages from Deutsche Bank and other defendants, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York state court in Manhattan. A formal complaint has not yet been filed.
Deutsche Bank said in a statement: “We will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims.”
;Seth Levine, an attorney for Mr. Black, declined to comment.
The legal action came two months after Matthew Connolly, who headed Deutsche Bank’s pool trading desk in New York, filed a $150 million lawsuit also accusing the bank of malicious prosecution.
Deutsche Bank asked a judge on January 13 to reject Mr. Connolly’s case.
Mr. Black and Mr. Connolly was convicted in 2018 of rigging Libor, but the federal appeals court in Manhattan overturned both convictions last January, citing a lack of evidence of guilt.
Libor, short for the London interbank offered rate, underpinned hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial products including credit cards and mortgages before it was phased out last January.
Investigations worldwide into Libor manipulation resulted in around $9 billion in bank fines, including $2.5 billion for Deutsche Bank in 2015.
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