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Barclays has won a major legal setback for investors in two U.S. securities fraud lawsuits stemming from the bank's unauthorized sale of $17.7 billion in additional securities, a decision delivered by U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan on Friday.
The lawsuits, targeting Barclays’ issuance of its iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Future exchange-traded notes (VXX), were dismissed after the judge ruled that investors could not sue based solely on the bank's general assurances regarding its internal controls. The decision also dismissed similar claims from investors adversely affected by a market squeeze when Barclays halted VXX sales in March 2022—an action that caused the price of VXX securities sold short to soar 140% above their indicative value.
Judge Liman’s 111-page ruling found no evidence of intent to defraud or conscious recklessness by Barclays officials, including former Chief Executive Jes Staley. The court noted that the bank’s remedial efforts—such as suspending sales, issuing timely disclosures to regulators and the public, and offering a buyback of the overissued securities—constituted a prudent response that weakened any inference of fraudulent intent.
The legal action follows revelations that Barclays had, over a span of five years, sold $15.2 billion more structured notes and exchange-traded notes than U.S. regulators permitted—a figure later revised to $17.7 billion. Barclays has described the overissuance as "entirely avoidable" and "self-inflicted." In response to the controversy, the bank reached a $361 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in September 2022, which included a $200 million civil fine, and later agreed to a $19.5 million settlement in a related shareholder lawsuit.
Investors had argued that the failure to adhere to regulatory limits and the subsequent disruption when VXX sales were suspended caused significant market distortions and financial harm. However, Judge Liman determined that the claims did not demonstrate a sufficient basis for fraud allegations.
With the dismissal of these lawsuits, Barclays has effectively closed another chapter in the protracted legal battles following its issuance blunder. Neither Barclays nor the investors' lawyers immediately responded to requests for comment.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
Germany will grant police the power to shoot down rogue drones like those that have disrupted airports across Europe and that some European leaders have attributed to a hybrid war being waged by Russia.
Czech Republic election winner ANO hopes to conclude negotiations with two small parties on forming a new government by the beginning of November, party leader Andrej Babis said on Wednesday (8 October).
Türkiye on Wednesday slammed an intervention by Israeli forces against a flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza as an act of piracy and a violation of international law.
Caretaker French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu struck a cautiously optimistic tone on Wednesday (8 October), saying a deal could potentially be reached on the country's budget by year end, making the risk of a snap election more remote.
Four people have been confirmed dead after a six-storey building collapsed in central Madrid while being converted into a hotel, authorities said, following a 15-hour rescue effort involving drones and sniffer dogs.
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