Citi Argues Against Trial Delay in Disputed Revlon Payment Suit
Citi Argues Against Trial Delay in Disputed Revlon Payment Suit
(Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. is looking to keep court proceedings on track in its attempt to recover more than $900 million the bank says it accidentally transferred to Revlon Inc. lenders last month.
A lawyer for the bank on Thursday asked U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan to deny a request by some of the lenders to postpone trial in Citigroup’s suit against them for eight weeks. The lenders, who said they need more to time to gather evidence, have “not shown good cause for any further delay,” Matthew Ingber of law firm Mayer Brown said in a letter to the judge.
While the bank has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars, some of the lenders -- including several engaged in a restructuring fight with Revlon -- are balking at its demand, saying the cosmetics company was in default on their loans and owed them the money. The bank has sued 11 firms.
The suit is currently scheduled for a November trial. Ingber said the group of lenders was likely seeking a delay because they were also involved in a separate suit against Revlon, which was filed a day after the mistaken transfer.
Citigroup, which had been collecting funds from Revlon and distributing them to creditors, claims it intended to make interest payments on the company’s behalf, but an employee erroneously transferred a sum more than 100 times as large from the bank’s own accounts.
Ingber said further discovery in the case was “not necessary to determine whether the payment was a mistake” and additional delay was unwarranted given the “straightforward” nature of the dispute.
The case is In re Citibank August 11, 2020 Wire Transfers, 20-cv-6539, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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