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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

MISH INTERNATIONAL MONETARY 

INC., on behalf of itself and all others similarly 

situated,

Plaintiff, 

v. 

VEGA CAPITAL LONDON, LTD., et al., 

Defendants.

Case No. 1:20-cv-04577

Judge: Hon. Manish S. Shah 

PLAINTIFF’S UNCONTESTED MOTION FOR AN EXTENSION 

AND PAGE ENLARGEMENT

Pursuant to Local Rule 7.1 and Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(4), Plaintiff Mish International 

Monetary, Inc. (“Plaintiff”) respectfully submits this uncontested motion to request (1) leave to 

submit an opening class certification brief of up to forty (40) pages; and (2) a one-week extension—

from February 12 to February 19, 2024—of the deadline for Plaintiff to submit the class motion. 

ECF No. 294 (scheduling order). Defendants do not oppose the foregoing relief.

In support of this motion, Plaintiff respectfully states as follows:

I. THE UCONTESTED PAGE ENLARGEMENT SHOULD BE GRANTED 

1. Plaintiff’s class certification brief must address four Rule 23(a) prerequisites, two 

Rule 23(b)(3) prerequisites and the implied Rule 23 ascertainability requirement in the context of the 

complex claims and substantial fact record herein. See ¶¶3-5 below. 

2. Additionally, Plaintiff’s class brief will include a more expansive treatment than a 

typical class motion concerning what is a common question and what does not affect or is not 

relevant to the existence of a common question. Specifically, Plaintiff’s class brief will demonstrate 

that Defendants Vega and Spires’ claimed relevancy for their twenty-eight (28) Rule 45 document 
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subpoenas to potential Class members and the information sought by such subpoenas does not 

affect class certification. See ECF No. 293. 

3. Plaintiff’s class brief must address the numerous Rule 23 requirements in the context 

of the complex claims at issue herein. Here, Plaintiff alleges the twelve Defendants conspired to 

manipulate prices of WTI crude oil futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange 

(“NYMEX”) and the Intercontinental Exchange (“ICE”) in violation of the Commodity Exchange 

Act, 7 U.S.C. §1 et seq. (“CEA”), Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. §1 et seq. (“Sherman Act”) and 

Illinois common law unjust enrichment. Mish Int’l Monetary Inc. v. Vega Cap. London, Ltd., 596 F. 

Supp. 3d 1076, 1088 (N.D. Ill. 2022); Mish Int’l Monetary Inc. v. Vega Cap. London, Ltd., 648 F. Supp. 

3d 980, 990 (N.D. Ill. 2022). 

4. The prosecution of manipulation claims pursuant to the CEA has been recognized 

to be “complex and difficult.” In re Sumitomo Copper Litig., 74 F.Supp.2d 393, 395 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) 

(commodity futures manipulation cases are “complex and difficult”); see also Merrill Lynch, Pierce, 

Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Curran, 456 U.S. 353, 356 (1982) (commodity futures markets are “esoteric”).

5. Plaintiff’s class motion will also address the substantial discovery record in this case. 

Plaintiff, Defendants, and numerous non-parties have already produced a substantial volume of 

documents and records totaling more than 132,000 pages. Separately, the Chicago Mercantile 

Exchange (“CME”) and ICE Futures Europe (“ICE”) have produced extremely large amounts of 

trade data. So far, there have been five party depositions (Plaintiff and four Vega Trader 

Defendants) and two non-party depositions. 

6. Plaintiff is endeavoring to be as concise as possible in the class brief. However, in 

the circumstances present here, Plaintiff respectfully submits it may require up to 40-pages to fairly 

address the class certification issues in this complex action.
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7. This Court has granted similar requests for page extensions of class certification 

opening briefs in actions involving claims much less complex than the claims in this action. See, e.g., 

Langston et al v. Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association et al, 17-cv-4978, ECF No. 153 (N.D. Ill. 

May 23, 2023) (Shah, J.) (granting plaintiffs’ request for a 30-page class certification opening brief in 

action involving claims for negligence, breach of contract and unjust enrichment).

II. THE UNCONTESTED EXTENSION SHOULD BE GRANTED

8. Plaintiff’s class motion is currently due on February 12, 2024. ECF No. 294. Good 

cause exists for extending the class motion deadline by one week. See Rule 16(b)(4) (modification of 

a scheduling order requires a showing of good cause).

9. First, Plaintiff’s counsel has encountered delays in dealing with Plaintiff’s experts 

who are now teaching and have other commitments on their time, including travel abroad. 

10. Second, since the hearing held on January 11, 2024 (ECF No. 294), Plaintiff has 

received eight additional non-party document productions that total approximately 43,350 pages. 

These additional non-party document productions are in response to the Rule 45 subpoenas issued 

by Defendants Vega and Spires, which, again, Plaintiff intends to address in the class brief. See ¶2

above. Also, ICE recently produced additional trade information. 

11. Third, in addition to the delays and recent document productions, the work on the 

class motion is taking more time than counsel for Plaintiff anticipated. 

12. Under the current schedule, by February 26, 2024, the parties must submit a joint 

status report with proposals for briefing the class motion and any discovery requested prior to 

briefing. ECF No. 294. Plaintiff proposes to extend the status report deadline to March 1. The 

Court has also scheduled a telephone status hearing for March 12, 2024, at 9:30 a.m. Id.
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CONCLUSION

Plaintiff respectfully requests the Court: (1) grant Plaintiff leave to submit a class certification 

brief of up to forty (40) pages; (2) extend the deadline for Plaintiff to submit the class motion by one 

week until February 19, 2024; and (3) extend the submission of the status report to March 1, 2024.

Dated: January 30, 2024

 Respectfully submitted, 

/s/ Christopher McGrath

Christopher Lovell 

 Christopher M. McGrath

 LOVELL STEWART HALEBIAN 

JACOBSON LLP

500 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2440

New York, New York 10110

Telephone: (212) 608-1900

Marvin A. Miller

Andy Szot 

MILLER LAW LLC

115 S. LaSalle Street, Suite 2910

Chicago, Illinois 60603

Telephone: (312) 332-3400

Counsel for Plaintiff