The defendants in a lawsuit alleging illicit practices on Currenex are seeking to take the testimony of Jad Sarmo and David Hastings.
On September 18, 2025, Currenex, Inc., State Street Global Markets International Limited, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, HC Technologies, LLC, and State Street Bank and Trust Company filed a motion with the New York Southern District Court for the issuance of letters rogatory directed to the appropriate judicial authority in the United Kingdom.
The defendants move the Court to issue two letters rogatory to take testimony overseas of Jad Sarmo, a former employee of plaintiff DSquare Trading Limited and David Hastings, a former employee of defendant Currenex.
The plaintiffs in this action assert that they were harmed by Currenex’s alleged failure to fully disclose tiebreaking settings on its anonymous “Executable Streaming Prices Trading Model” (the “Platform”) that were in use prior to 2015.
Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that they purportedly understood the platform to operate as a “central limit order book,” in which all bids were eligible to match against all offers (a system which they claim carried with it an assumption that the Platform broke ties on a strict first in, first out (“FIFO”) basis).
The defendants deny the plaintiffs’ allegations and assert, among other defenses, that Plaintiffs in fact understood that the platform was not a central limit order book, did not operate on a strict FIFO basis and instead, for a period of time prior to 2015, utilized priority settings in order matching that prioritized liquidity from institutional liquidity providers like plaintiff XTX and the Trading Defendants.
The defendants also assert a statute-of-limitations defense because the plaintiffs knew of, or should have known of, the allegations in the complaint for years prior to bringing this case.
To these ends, the defendants seek testimony from (i) Jad Sarmo, former Head of Technology at DSquare, and (ii) David Hastings, former Global Head of Strategic Relationships at Currenex, each of whom, evidence indicates, will be knowledgeable about the case-related topics.
Jad Sarmo served as the Head of Technology at DSquare from June 2006 through February 2021. Mr. Sarmo is seen as knowledgeable about the foreign exchange transactions that DSquare Trading Limited made during the Class Period. During the nearly 15-year period he worked for DSquare, Mr. Sarmo was also purportedly responsible for creating DSquare’s trading software and overseeing software developers, IT, and Operations personnel for the development of DSquare’s trading software.
Defendants anticipate David Hastings will be able to testify about two important issues: Currenex’s use of priority settings in tiebreaking prior to 2011 and when Plaintiffs learned of Currenex’s use of priority settings in tiebreaking.
First, from July 2006 through October 2009, Mr. Hastings was the Global Head of Strategic Relationships at Currenex.. In that role, Mr. Hastings was responsible for selling and marketing Currenex’s “comprehensive suite of products.” He also represented Currenex within its global strategic relationships for buy and sell side.
Based on his role, Mr. Hastings likely has first-hand knowledge about the historic use of priority settings in tiebreaking, and how Currenex communicated about those settings with users and strategic partners during the years he worked at Currenex. Given Mr. Hastings’s responsibilities for marketing Currenex’s products, Mr. Hastings is said to be able to offer first-hand testimony about what he and others conveyed to actual and prospective Currenex users about the Platform’s operation during the early years of the proposed class period. There is also every reason to believe that he would be knowledgeable about and could testify to whether, when, and how priority may have been used at Currenex during his tenure.
Second, In January 2019, Mr. Hastings began a 12-month stint working for FX consulting firm, Velador Associates. Velador is the same consulting firm that educated Matt Edwards, the founder and sole employee of Named Plaintiffs Irish and Edmar, about their potential “claims against Currenex” and their “CURRENEX CLAIM” at approximately the same time that Mr. Hastings worked there.
During his time at Velador, Mr. Hastings worked closely with Velador employee Colin Lloyd, co-authoring articles with him and, in marketing materials, asking potential clients to “call David Hastings or Colin Lloyd.”
The defendants argue that if Mr. Hastings shared what he knew about the Platform’s operations with Velador and Velador shared that knowledge with Mr. Edwards then Plaintiffs’ claims are untimely.
Because Messrs. Sarmo and Hastings are not parties to this litigation, reside in the United Kingdom, and are otherwise outside the Court’s jurisdiction, Defendants seek to secure their testimony about material evidence via letters rogatory.
