The New York Southern District Court has issued an order compelling XTX executives to sit for depositions in a lawsuit about allegedly illegal practices of rigging FX auctions on Currenex.

On August 4, 2025, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan signed an order compelling Alexander Gerko, founder and co-CEO of XTX, and Zarthustra Amrolia, former co-CEO and current Chairman of XTX, to sit for depositions.

The complaint alleges a long-running scheme to rig what amount to auction for foreign exchange (“FX”) transactions. Currenex, which operates an FX trading platform in conjunction with its parent company State Street Bank, allegedly agreed to give a narrow subset of participants unfair bidding advantages – advantages that Plaintiffs and class members were neither informed of nor reasonably expected.

Chief among these was a secret rule for breaking “tie” bids: In case of a tie, Currenex operated under secret agreements with a few privileged customers, providing that their bids would always be declared the winner.

Currenex also allegedly provided these same privileges to its own parent company, State Street Bank, which operated as one of the largest liquidity providers on the platform.

The complaint also claims that Currenex gave at least one customer (HC Tech) administrative-level access to the entire Platform, allowing HC Tech to view all orders placed on the Platform—something that no user reasonably expected and that was directly contrary to industry standards. This was accomplished at one point by a Currenex/State Street Bank executive passing API specifications and username / password credentials to HC Tech.

The plaintiffs argue that this case is about the illegality of platform operators implementing practices that were (a) highly material, (b) adverse to the interests of most users, (c) shocking departures from industry norms, and (d) never disclosed.

Plaintiff Edmar Financial Company, LLC is a Virginia limited liability company that operated during the relevant period as a foreign limited liability company in Naples, Florida. During the relevant period, Edmar entered into FX spot transactions and placed numerous orders on both the buy-side (also known as being a price taker) and on the sell-side (also known as being a price maker, or liquidity provider) via the Currenex Platform located in New York.

Plaintiff Irish Blue & Gold, Inc. (“IBG”) is a Bahamas company with its principal place of business in Nassau, Bahamas. During the relevant period, Irish Blue & Gold, Inc. entered into FX spot transactions and placed numerous orders on both the buy-side and sell- side via the Currenex Platform located in New York.

XTX Markets Limited is a private limited company registered in England and Wales with its principal place of business in London, England. During the relevant period, XTX entered into FX spot transactions and placed numerous orders on both the buy-side and sell-side via the Currenex Platform located in New York.

DSquare Trading Limited is a private limited company registered in England and Wales with its principal place of business in London, England. During the relevant period, DSquare entered into FX spot transactions and placed numerous orders on both the buy-side and sell-side via the Currenex Platform located in New York.

Defendant Currenex, Inc. is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of Delaware with its principal place of business in New York, New York. Currently, Currenex, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of State Street Bank. Currenex, Inc., together with State Street Global and their common parent company State Street Bank, operate and manage the Currenex Platform.

Defendant State Street Global Markets International Limited is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of England, with its principal place of business in London. Currently, State Street Global is also a wholly owned subsidiary of State Street Bank. State Street Global, together with Currenex, Inc. and their common parent company State Street Bank, operate and manage the Currenex Platform.

Defendant State Street Bank and Trust Company is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with its principal place of business in Boston, Massachusetts. State Street Bank is also the parent company of Currenex, Inc. and State Street Global.

Defendant Goldman, Sachs & Co. LLC is a company organized and existing under the laws of the State of New York with its principal place of business in New York, New York. Goldman Sachs was one of the liquidity providers that entered into a secret agreement with Currenex to secure priority trading rights on the Platform. During the relevant period, Goldman Sachs entered into FX spot transactions with class members, including Plaintiffs, via the Currenex Platform in New York.

Defendant HC Technologies, LLC (f/k/a Henning-Carey Proprietary Trading, LLC) is a limited liability company organized and existing under the laws of the State of Illinois with its principal place of business in Chicago, Illinois. HC Tech is an algorithmic and proprietary trading firm. HC Tech was one of the liquidity providers that entered into a secret agreement with Currenex to secure priority trading rights on the Platform. During the relevant period, HC Tech entered into FX spot transactions with class members, including Plaintiffs, via the Currenex Platform in New York.

In issuing the order on the depositions of Gerko and Amrolia, the Judge noted the plaintiffs’ argument that the apex doctrine protects Gerko and Amrolia from being deposed.

Because of the possibility of business disruption and the potential for harassment, courts give special scrutiny to requests to depose high-ranking corporate and governmental officials, who are sometimes referred to as ‘apex witnesses.’ However, senior executives are not exempt from deposition, and because principles relating to apex witnesses are in tension with the broad availability of discovery, it is important to excuse a witness from giving testimony only in compelling circumstances.

An order barring a litigant from taking a deposition is most extraordinary relief, and it is the party seeking such an order that bears the burden of proving that the proposed deponent has nothing to contribute. Accordingly, courts have precluded depositions of senior management officials where the depositions manifestly were sought for the purpose of harassment and where the proposed deponents knew little or nothing about the subject matter of the action.

The Court found that the plaintiffs have failed to show that Gerko and Amrolia have nothing to contribute. Given the volume and substance of interactions each had with Currenex personnel regarding use of the platform, they are sufficiently likely to have knowledge of matters that appropriately are the subject of discovery. Both are a far cry from the prototypical apex witness, who sits removed from the key facts of the dispute.

Contrary to plaintiffs’ suggestion, defendants are not required to prove that Gerko and Amrolia had knowledge of the alleged secret priority rules in order to depose them. Plaintiffs have not demonstrated the compelling circumstances required to preclude the requested depositions.

Accordingly, defendants’ motion to compel the depositions of Gerko and Amrolia was granted.

Depositions of Gerko and Amrolia must be completed by the end of fact discovery on September 19, 2025.