IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

MISH INT’L MONETARY INC., 

on behalf of itself and 

all others similarly situated,

Plaintiff,

Case No. 20-cv-04577

v.

VEGA CAPITAL LONDON, LTD., et al.,

Defendants.

Hon. Manish S. Shah

Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert

JOINT STATUS REPORT

Plaintiff Mish International Monetary Inc. and Defendants Vega Capital London Ltd.

(“Vega”), Adrian Spires (together with Vega Capital London Ltd., the “Vega Defendants”), Paul 

Commins, George Commins, Christopher Roase, Elliott Pickering, Aristos Demetriou, Connor 

Younger, James Biagioni, Henry Lunn, Paul Sutton, and Matthew Rhys Thompson (collectively, 

the “Trader Defendants”) respectfully submit this joint status report pursuant to the Court’s 

January 27, 2023 Order directing that “[t]he parties shall file a joint status report describing 

discovery accomplished, any disputes needing court intervention, and the witnesses to be deposed 

(and on what timetable) on 7/12/23.” ECF No. 201. 

I. Case Schedule

On January 27, 2023, the Court set a discovery and class certification schedule for this 

Action (ECF No. 201) in response to the parties’ joint initial status report (ECF No. 196) and 

Defendants’ motion to bifurcate class certification and merits discovery (ECF No. 198). The

Court permitted the parties to issue written discovery on January 31, 2023, noted that “classcertification discovery will necessarily be prioritized to comply with [the] scheduling order,” and 

Case: 1:20-cv-04577 Document #: 244 Filed: 07/12/23 Page 1 of 7 PageID #:8363
-2-

set the following deadlines for class certification motion briefing and fact discovery:

• Plaintiff’s motion for class certification, including any supporting expert reports, due

January 22, 2024;

• Defendants’ opposition to class certification, including any support expert reports, due

March 4, 2024; 

• Plaintiff’s class certification reply, including rebuttal expert reports, due April 8, 2024;

• Deadline for completion of all fact discovery, including foreign discovery, due December 

30, 2024.

II. Discovery Accomplished

a. Discovery Requests

i. Plaintiff’s Requests

On October 5, 2020, as authorized by The Honorable Gary Feinerman (ECF No. 21), 

Plaintiff served a request on Defendant Vega for production of documents that it had “previously 

produced to the CFTC, the CME, the NYMEX, or other regulators.” Plaintiff subsequently 

served a second set of six requests and a third set of 38 requests on all Defendants, on January 

31, 2023, and February 17, 2023, respectively. Plaintiff has also served a fourth request for 

documents and a first set of interrogatories on Defendants.

ii. Defendants’ Requests

The Trader Defendants and the Vega Defendants have each served one set of requests for 

the production of documents on Plaintiff on January 31, 2023, and May 2, 2023, respectively.

b. Document Productions

i. Plaintiff’s Productions

Plaintiff began producing documents in response to Defendants’ requests on April 6, 

Case: 1:20-cv-04577 Document #: 244 Filed: 07/12/23 Page 2 of 7 PageID #:8364
-3-

2023. As of July 12, 2023, Plaintiff has made nine (rolling) productions consisting of 

approximately 184 documents (1,045 pages). Plaintiff has also collected and produced 

documents responsive to Defendants’ requests through non-party subpoena. See “c” below. 

Although Plaintiff has not completed its search, based on current information Plaintiff believes 

its document production in response to Defendants’ requests is substantially complete. Plaintiff 

has also provided a privilege log.

ii. Defendants’ Productions

Vega has produced over 1,300 documents, totaling nearly 44,000 pages, in response to 

Plaintiff’s first set of document requests. Vega intends to produce additional documents on a 

rolling basis in response to Plaintiff's most recent discovery requests. 

In addition to documents they provided to Vega and have already been produced by 

Vega, the Trader Defendants have made five further productions of documents consisting of 

2,020 documents totaling 13,262 pages in response to Plaintiff’s second and third set of 

document requests. Trading Defendants believe their production is substantially complete.

c. Non-Party Discovery

Plaintiff has served Rule 45 subpoenas on non-parties the Intercontinental Exchange 

(“ICE”), CME, GH Financials Limited, GH Financials LLC (together with GH Financials 

Limited, “GHF”),

1 Trading Technologies International, Inc.,2 ADM Investor Services, Inc.

(“ADMIS”),

3 Three Lakes Advisors, and Archer Financial Services, Inc.4

 Plaintiff has also 

1 GHF operated as the futures commission merchant and clearing firm for Defendants’ trading in 

WTI crude oil.

2 Trading Technologies provided certain trading related services to Defendants.

3 ADMIS was Plaintiff’s clearing firm for commodities trading.

4 Three Lakes Advisors and Archer Financial Services, Inc. were Plaintiff’s commodity futures 

brokers.

Case: 1:20-cv-04577 Document #: 244 Filed: 07/12/23 Page 3 of 7 PageID #:8365
-4-

noticed subpoenas for Interactive Brokers LLC, TD Ameritrade, E*-Trade Futures, AMP Global 

and GAIN Capital.

Vega has served a Rule 45 subpoena on ADMIS. The Trader Defendants have served 

Rule 45 subpoenas on ICE, CME, Three Lakes Advisors, Archer Financial Services, Inc., and 

Oak Trading Systems, Inc. 

CME has informed the parties that it will produce market data and certain other 

documents beginning this week.

ICE has informed the parties that the requested documents are in the custody of ICE’s 

UK entity, ICE Futures Europe. Both Plaintiff and the Trader Defendants believe they have 

worked out an agreement with ICE regarding the scope of production. Plaintiff and the Trader

Defendants expect to move the Court for a letter of request pursuant to the Hague Convention in 

order to obtain this foreign discovery.

Plaintiff has had numerous meet and confers with counsel for GHF. GHF has not yet 

produced documents in response to the subpoenas. Plaintiff is asking GHF to conclude the meet 

and confers by providing a final position. 

ADMIS has produced 164 documents totaling 488 pages in response to the Rule 45 

subpoenas served by the parties.

Trading Technologies International, Inc. has produced over 700 megabytes of data in 

response to Plaintiff’s subpoena.

Three Lakes Advisors has produced 43 documents in response to Plaintiff’s subpoena.

III. Disputes Requiring Court Intervention

a. Plaintiff’s Position

The parties have held numerous meet and confers concerning Defendants’ responses to 

Case: 1:20-cv-04577 Document #: 244 Filed: 07/12/23 Page 4 of 7 PageID #:8366
-5-

Plaintiffs’ document requests, including on March 17, May 9, and July 7 and 10 and are 

continuing to meet and confer. Plaintiff is reviewing the Trader Defendants’ recent document 

productions and awaits production from Defendants Vega and Spires. Although Plaintiff does 

not believe there are currently any ripe discovery disputes that require Court intervention, 

Plaintiff anticipates making motions no later than August 10, 2023 to compel Defendants to 

produce documents if the meet and confer process cannot satisfactorily resolve the issues. 

Likewise, with regards to the GHF subpoenas, Plaintiff anticipates making a motion to compel 

no later than August 10 if the meet and confer process cannot resolve the issues. Especially 

needed for Plaintiff’s economist’s anticipated model and other expert submissions that will be 

used in the class certification motion in January 2024 are documents from the CME, the ICE and 

detailed electronic records from Defendants of their trading in futures contracts, especially 

including WTI crude oil futures contracts prior to April 20, 2020.

b. Defendants’ Position

Defendants agree with Plaintiff that, at this time, no disputes have ripened to require 

judicial intervention. Defendants are reviewing Plaintiff’s recent document productions, 

including email communications from Plaintiff produced today, and have requested information 

from Plaintiff on their search for and production of documents related to class certification, 

including any documents relating to other potential class members. Similar to Plaintiff, for 

briefing on class certification, Defendants’ experts require documents and data from the CME 

and ICE concerning trading in WTI crude oil futures contracts during the purported class period.

IV. Witnesses to be Deposed

a. Plaintiff’s Position

Plaintiff’s current objective is to take depositions of at least the following witnesses 

Case: 1:20-cv-04577 Document #: 244 Filed: 07/12/23 Page 5 of 7 PageID #:8367
-6-

before filing their class certification motion in January 2024: (a) Defendant Spires, each of the 

individual Trader Defendants, a Rule 30(6) deposition of Defendant Vega, and certain Vegarelated persons (including at least Jason Merritt); and (b) non-parties to the extent needed to 

explain the documents, items in the documents, or the conduct reflected in the documents 

produced by such non-parties.

b. Defendants’ Position

Defendants initially anticipate taking the depositions of Plaintiff and its commodity 

futures brokers, as well as any expert Plaintiff puts forward for its motion for class certification. 

Defendants expect these initial depositions to take place before February 29, 2024. Defendants

may also take other depositions relating to class certification in the fall of 2023 or January or 

February 2024, including of other putative members of the class. Defendants propose that other 

depositions, including depositions of the Trader Defendants, take place in the second half of 

2024, after the completion of document discovery and briefing on class certification.

c. Dispute Concerning Depositions 

Plaintiff and Defendants presently have a disagreement about the timing of depositions of 

the Trader Defendants. If this dispute cannot be resolved through meet and confer, then Plaintiff 

will move for relief from the Court no later than August 10, 2023.

Dated: July 12, 2023

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Christopher M. McGrath

Christopher Lovell

Christopher M. McGrath

LOVELL STEWART HALEBIAN 

JACOBSON LLP

500 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2440

New York, New York 10110

/s/ Michael P. Kelly

Michael P. Kelly

AKERMAN LLP

750 Ninth Street, N.W., Suite 750 

Washington, DC 20001 

(202) 393-6222 

michael.kelly@akerman.com 

Case: 1:20-cv-04577 Document #: 244 Filed: 07/12/23 Page 6 of 7 PageID #:8368
-7-

Telephone: (212) 608-1900

Facsimile: (212) 719-4775

Marvin A. Miller

Andy Szot

MILLER LAW LLC

115 S. LaSalle Street, Suite 2910

Chicago, Illinois 60603

Telephone: (312) 332.3400

Attorneys for Plaintiff Mish International 

Monetary Inc.

Joel S. Forman 

AKERMAN LLP 

1251 Avenue of the Americas, 37th Floor 

New York, NY 10020 

(212) 880-3800 

joel.forman@akerman.com

Amy Graham Doehring 

Elpitha B. Lambros

AKERMAN LLP 

71 S. Wacker Drive, 47th Floor 

Chicago, IL 60606 

(312) 634-5700 

amy.doehring@akerman.com

elpitha.lambros@akerman.com

Attorneys for Defendants Vega Capital London 

Ltd. And Adrian Spires

/s/ Matthew L. Mazur

Roger A. Burlingame

Matthew L. Mazur

DECHERT LLP

160 Queen Victoria Street 

London EC4V 4QQ, United Kingdom 

Telephone: +44 20 7184 7000 

Roger.Burlingame@dechert.com

Matthew.Mazur@dechert.com

Steven E. Bizar

Julia Chapman

DECHERT LLP

2929 Arch Street

Philadelphia, PA 19104

Telephone: (215) 994-2222

Steven.Bizar@dechert.com

Julia.Chapman@dechert.com

Attorneys for Defendants Paul Commins, 

George Commins, Christopher Roase, Elliott 

Pickering, Aristos Demetriou, Connor 

Younger, James Biagioni, Henry Lunn, Paul 

Sutton, and Matthew Rhys Thompson

Case: 1:20-cv-04577 Document #: 244 Filed: 07/12/23 Page 7 of 7 PageID #:8369