U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff may have thought Citigroup Inc.’s $285 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which he approved while holding his nose on Tuesday, amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist. But at least the SEC recovered something from Citi, which is more than we can say for South Korea’s Woori Bank and its lawyers at Hausfeld.
In a 23-page ruling also issued Tuesday, a different federal judge in Manhattan ruled that Woori waited too long to allege that Citi duped it into investing $25 million in a complex financial instrument known as Armitage ABS CDO in 2007. Woori had claimed that Citigroup Global Markets Inc. sold Armitage to investors despite ensuring—and betting—that an underlying collateralized debt obligation was doomed to fail.
