By Jonathan Stempel and Ariane Luthi
NEW YORK/ZURICH, March 12 (Reuters) – UBS agreed in principle to settle a lawsuit by whistleblower Trevor Murray, a former bond strategist who said the Swiss bank fired him in retaliation for refusing to publish misleading research reports, ending a long-running case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The parties resolved their differences through mediation, and expect within 30 days to sign a final settlement resolving the more than 13-year-old dispute, according to a joint letter filed on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ordered the case’s dismissal on Thursday.
Robert Herbst, a lawyer for Murray, declined to comment. UBS and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Murray claimed that members of UBS’ commercial mortgage-backed securities desk pressured him to “skew” his research to support the bank’s trading positions and product offerings.
He worked mainly in Manhattan before being fired in February 2012, and sued six months later.
UBS has said it fired Murray in the course of eliminating thousands of jobs, following a $2.3 billion loss at a London trading desk, not because of his whistleblowing.
In February 2024, the Supreme Court reinstated a more than $2.6 million award for Murray, including a $903,300 jury verdict for back pay, saying a federal law protecting financial whistleblowers didn’t require them to prove their firings were motivated by retaliatory intent.
One year later, the federal appeals court in Manhattan set aside the award, citing defective jury instructions. The Supreme Court declined to hear Murray’s subsequent appeal.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Ariane Luthi in Zurich; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Franklin Paul)
