Bonacasa v. Standard Chartered PLC

Opinion

SUSMAN GODFREY L.L.P. □□□

The Honorable Edgardo Ramos July 30, 2025 United States District Court for the Southern District of New York Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse 40 Foley Square New York, NY 10007 Re: — Bonacasa v. Standard Chartered Bank (No. 1:22-cv-03320); Moore v. Standard Chartered Bank (No. 1:23-cv-02865); Smedinghoff vy. Standard Chartered Bank (No. 1:23-cv-02865) Dear Judge Ramos: Pursuant to Section 3.11 of Your Honor’s Individual Practices, Section 6 of the Electronic Case Filing Rules & Instructions, and Section 12 of the Protective Order (see, e.g., Smedinghoff, ECF No. 18), Plaintiffs and nonparty Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. (“CGMI”) seek approval to (1) redact certain information from Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration of the Court’s July 16, 2025 Opinion & Order, and (2) file Exhibit A under seal. Plaintiffs’ motion references and attaches a declaration that nonparty CGMI has designated as “Confidential” pursuant to the Protective Order. Plaintiffs are contemporaneously filing with this letter: (1) a public version of the motion with the proposed redactions applied and the proposed sealed exhibit slipsheeted, and (2) an under-seal version of the motion with the proposed redactions highlighted and the proposed sealed exhibit included. Plaintiffs’ Position: Plaintiffs take no position on the redactions or sealing of exhibits. See Protective Order, ¥ 12.1 (“[A] Receiving Party may rely on the Designating Party’s designation of any Discovery Material and need not independently verify, or take a position on, such Designating Party’s designation.”). Pursuant to Section 7.2(1) of the Protective Order, Plaintiffs request that the Court authorize Plaintiffs to disclose the proposed sealed version of their motion and exhibits on counsel for BofA, Kenneth C. Rudd (krudd@zeklaw.com) and AJ Bosco (ajbosco@zeklaw.com). BofA has not executed Exhibit A to the Protective Order and CGMI has not provided written consent for Plaintiffs to disclose CGMI’s “Confidential” material to BofA’s counsel pursuant to Section 7.2(i) of the Protective Order. Accordingly, Plaintiffs request the Court’s authorization to share the unredacted version of their motion and the proposed sealed exhibit with BofA’s counsel. CGMI’s Position: Non-party CGMI has designated the declaration at issue (the ““Declaration”) as confidential under the Protective Order entered in this case. Prevailing Second Circuit law— including Bernstein v. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, 814 F.3d 132 (2d Cir. 2016) and Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga, 435 F.3d 110 (2d Cir. 2006)—supports the filing of this material under seal because it was properly designated confidential under the Protective Order and because documents produced in discovery “often play ‘no role in the performance of Article III functions’ and so the presumption of access to these records is low.” Bernstein, 814 F.3d at 142 (quoting United States v. Amodeo, 71 F.3d 1044, 1050 (2d Cir. 1995)); see also Strauss v. Credit Lyonnais, S.A., Nos. 06-cv-702, 07-cv-6172011 (DLI/MCG), WL 4736359, at *3 (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 6, 2011) (“materials obtained in discovery ‘are not public components of a civil trial [and] were not open to the public at common law’”) (quoting Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20, 33

(1984)). Furthermore, “[c]ourts in this District routinely permit parties to seal or redact commercially sensitive information to protect confidential business interests ….” IBM Corp. v. Micro Focus United States, Inc., No. 22-cv-9910 (VB)(VR), 2023 WL 8650839, *1 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 14, 2023); see also Nielson Consumer LLC v. Circana Grp., L.P., No. 22-CV-3235 (JPO)(KHP), 2024 WL 990073, *2 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 6, 2024) (sealing is appropriate to protect “sensitive business information”); Louis Vuitton Malletier S.A. v. Sunny Merch. Corp., 97 F. Supp. 3d 485, 511 (S.D.N.Y. 2015) (permitting redactions of confidential business information of a privately held business, which “implicates legitimate privacy interests”). This is especially true with respect to the documents of non-parties. See, e.g., Chigirinskiy v. Panchenkova, 319 F. Supp. 3d 718, 740 (S.D.N.Y. 2018) (“the privacy interests of innocent third parties ... should weigh heavily in a court’s balancing equation in determining what portions of motion papers … should remain sealed or should be redacted.”) (quoting Matter of N.Y. Times Co., 828 F.2d 110, 116 (2d Cir. 1987)). Here, the Declaration contains non-party CGMI’s confidential business information, including CGMI’s customer relationships, confidential business analysis, and decision-making process regarding a potential project. Similar types of information, including information of non-party banks, have been sealed in this case, Dkts. 78, 106, 144, 153, and the same relief should be granted here. ** For these reasons, Plaintiffs and CGMI respectfully request that the Court grant the request to redact the referenced information contained in Plaintiffs’ motion and to file Exhibit A under seal. Plaintiffs also respectfully request that the Court authorize Plaintiffs to disclose the proposed sealed version of their motion and the proposed sealed exhibit on BofA’s counsel pursuant to Section 7.2(i) of the Protective Order.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Daniel D. Duhaime Ian M. Gore Lee Wolosky SUSMAN GODFREY LLP Andrew J. Lichtman 401 Union Street, Suite 3000 Kathryn E. Bolas Seattle, WA 98101 WILLKIE FARR & GALLAGHER LLP Tel: (206) 516-3880 787 Seventh Avenue igore@susmangodfrey.com New York, NY 10019 Tel: (212) 728-8000 Steven G. Sklaver lwolosky@willkie.com SUSMAN GODFREY LLP alichtman@willkie.com 1900 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1400 kbolas@willkie.com Los Angeles, CA 90067 Tel: (310) 789-3100 Andrianna Kastanek ssklaver@susmangodfrey.com JENNER & BLOCK LLP 353 N. Clark Street Seth D. Ard Chicago, IL 60654 Daniel D. Duhaime Tel: (312) 222-9350 SUSMAN GODFREY LLP akastanek@jenner.com One Manhattan West, 50th Floor Page 3 July 30, 2025

New York, NY 10001 Susanna D. Evarts Tel: (212) 336-8330 Rupali Srivasata sard@susmangodfrey.com JENNER & BLOCK LLP dduhaime@susmangodfrey.com 1155 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 Eli J. Kay-Oliphant Tel: (212) 891-1628 Adam J. Goldstein sevarts@jenner.com Tejinder Singh rsrivasata@jenner.com Ryan R. Sparacino SPARACINO PLLC Gary M. Osen 1920 L Street, Northwest, Suite 835 Ari Ungar Washington, DC 20036 Michael J. Radine eli.kay-oliphant@sparacinopllc.com OsEN LLC adam.goldstein@sparacinoplle.com 190 Moore Street, Suite 272 tejinder.simgh@sparacinoplle.com Hackensack, NJ 07601 ryan.sparacino@sparacinoplle.com Tel: (201) 265-6400 gosen@osenlaw.com Counsel for Smedinghoff Plaintiffs aungar@osenlaw.com mradine@osenlaw.com Counsel for Bonacasa and Moore Plaintiffs /s/ Maryia Jones Maryia Jones BAUGHMAN KroupP BossE PLLC 500 East Main Street, Suite 1400 motion to redact the referenced information Norfolk, VA ontained in Plaintiffs’ motion and to file Tel: (757) 904-5373 A under seal is granted. mjones@bkbfirm.com - ) Counsel for Nonparty Citigroup Global (/ \ Markets, Inc. Ramos, \U.S.D.J. August 1, 2025 York, New York