On January 8, the Crown Prosecution Service issued a press release stating that eight people had been charged in connection with Operation Hornet, an investigation by Thames Valley Police into allegations of fraudulent trading, money laundering and conspiracy to corrupt at HBOS’s high risk lending unit. The allegation is that in return for high value gifts, a turnaround consultancy, Quayside Corporate Services, was appointed to administer £35 million worth of loans made to corporate customers in difficulty. Neither Bank of Scotland nor Lloyds Banking Group is the subject of the investigation.
Bank of Scotland
Second Circuit Affirms Denial of Class Certification in Actions by Pension Funds
On April 30, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court’s denial of class certification in two putative class action lawsuits brought by New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund and Boilermaker Blacksmith National Pension Trust against Goldman Sachs and the Royal Bank of Scotland, respectively. The pension funds asserted claims under Sections 11, 12, and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 for purported misrepresentations and omissions in various MBS offerings. In a non-precedential summary order, the Second Circuit held that the court below had used the correct standard in finding that the suits will require individualized inquiries into plaintiffs’ knowledge of the alleged misstatements or omissions and therefore declined to certify the proposed classes as defined. Decision.