Jason Katz: ‘I wasn’t ready to admit what I had done’

Jason Katz, a second eye witness in the criminal case against former JP Morgan currency trader Akshay Aiyer, said he wasn’t always truthful when he first began meeting with US Department of Justice (DoJ) investigators because he was not ready to confess to his crimes.

Katz is the second government witness to admit to being unco-operative with the DoJ when the agency began investigating the alleged price-fixing conspiracy. The first was Christopher Cummins, formerly of Citi, who also admitted to initially lying to try to evade blame.

“I wasn’t mentally at the point to admit to people what I had done,” Katz told the court while testifying as a government witness on November 6. “[I wasn’t able] to admit what I had done.”

Katz told jurors he submitted fake trades into global trading systems, agreed not to compete with global banks, and rigged bids and offers for customers’ prices. He said he did this with Aiyer, Christopher Cummins, formerly of Citi, and Nicholas Williams, who was employed by Barclays.

Katz, who now owns a small real-estate business, began co-operating with the government in December 2014, while living in London. He entered into a plea agreement with the DoJ in January 2017, ending a 20-year career at ANZ, Barclays, BNP Paribas and Standard Bank “because I committed the acts brought forward”.

Katz’s testimony continues today (November 7). He is one of two former traders to testify on behalf of the US that they used chatrooms and other electronic media to co-ordinate trades with traders at rival banks.

I wasn’t mentally at the point to admit to people what I had done

Jason Katz

Cummins, who testified to the existence of co-ordination with Aiyer and others, backtracked on his statements under cross-examination when the defence provided a fuller scope of the chats and trading data – some of which he hadn’t seen in his review of 10,000-plus calls and more than 18 visits with prosecutors.

The flip-flop continued on November 5, when on redirect, Cummins told jurors the ZAR chatroom at issue in the case had “some noticeable differences” than others, like the Old Gits, in which he was also a participant because it was “more real-time sharing” of information.

“If you read the other chats you wouldn’t see that minute-to-minute thing,” he said.

But on re-cross, the defence, who in opening statements told jurors the men were “flawed witnesses”, showed several chats that Cummins had with members of the Old Gits and others, causing him to admit “I can see that this is real-time”.