In an expanded class action law suit that was originally files in 2015, several pension funds and wealthy individual investors accused several large banks with having rigged U.S. Treasury auctions, beginning in the 1990’s. The banks named in the suit - including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas and UBS – are all primary dealers.

In the new allegations, the banks secretly shared client information in online chat rooms in order to rig Treasury auctions. According to new evidence provided by one of the banks named in the original 2015 suit – and which is now cooperating with the plaintiffs – indicates that traders at the Wall Street banks shared the prices their clients sought to pay for the new Treasury bond issues. This gave each of the banks in the alleged cartel a better idea as to what price they should submit in the auction in order to increase their chances of getter a bigger share of the bond offering.

The banks supposedly worked their scam for years until the NYPost reported in June 2015 on a government investigation into the alleged actions.