A Manhattan federal judge ruled that proprietary trading giant Jane Street must turn over the details of the super-secretive and profitable trade that it claims were stolen by Izzy Englander’s Millennium hedge fund.
Manhattan federal judge Paul Engelmayer set a deadline of Thursday, May 23 for Jane Street to hand over details of the trade, which the firm has called “immensely profitable.”
“This case is essentially about trade secrets,” the judge said at a Thursday hearing. “Jane Street is to meet that deadline, no excuses.”
Deborah Brown a partner at Quinn Emanuel, which is representing Jane Street, said she sent a draft protective order to Millennium’s lawyers, which would seek to stop details of the trade from leaking out to the public.
At a hearing in April, lawyers for the two parties revealed in court that the trade was tied to short-term options trading in India and that it earned Jane Street $1 billion last year. The trade, the lawyers said, was on pace to earn even more for Jane Street this year before Millennium snatched away two of its top traders: Doug Schadewald and his direct report, Daniel Spottiswood.
Jane Street is a secretive trading and market-making firm that uses technology and algorithmic models to quietly mint billions of dollars in revenue. It once employed Sam Bankman-Fried, who, as founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was later sentenced to 25 years for fraud.
Jane Street has sued the men for taking the firm’s intellectual property to Millennium. The traders have said in court documents that they left because they were disappointed over their 2023 pay. Lawyers for Millennium have argued that the trade is not so secret, pointing to media reports detailing the opportunities and inefficiencies of the India options trade.
Jane Street had initially asked the court to stop Millennium and its two former traders from using the trade until the IP theft claims could be sorted. The judge denied that request and Jane Street is now seeking damages to be awarded by a jury trial. The next hearing is scheduled for December 13.
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