The U.S. Department of Justice has sent notices to hedge funds telling them not to destroy trading records involving bets on the euro, according to a person who has seen the requests.
The notices went to at least some of the hedge funds whose executives attended an idea dinner hosted by New York-based research and brokerage firm Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. on Feb. 8, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is private.
“The big issue is whether the meeting was informational, and these various traders were simply responding in a parallel way to a common set of facts,” which would be legal, said Herbert Hovenkamp, who teaches antitrust law at the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City.
“What’s not legal is for people to agree to trade at a particular price or against the euro to devalue it and start a stampede that devalues it further,” he said....MORE
