Different Results for Citigroup and Wells Fargo Derivative Claims
March 22, 2018 | The Insider: White Collar Defense and Securities Enforcement
Following a spate of regulatory investigations and settlements, a shareholder derivative action was filed against Citigroup’s directors and officers, claiming that they had failed to meet their obligation to “oversee company employees’ compliance with law” under the landmark In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation decision. At first blush, the case deals with issues very similar to those considered in a separate shareholder derivative suit against Wells Fargo & Company, in which a federal district court in May and October 2017 denied motions to dismiss and permitted discovery to proceed – the subject of a separate blog post. However, in the Citigroup case (Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System v. Corbat et al.), the Delaware Chancery Court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss and then denied a plaintiff motion to reopen the case. It is instructive to consider the Chancery Court’s analysis in the Citigroup case and to contrast the allegations there with the issues in the Wells Fargo case. […]