HSBC Holdings Plc, already facing a $2.46 billion judgment in an 11-year-old securities-fraud case, must keep litigating claims as a U.S. judge ordered more exchanges of evidence for a potential follow-up trial, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. A federal jury in Chicago ruled in 2009 that executives at Household International, now part of HSBC Finance Corp., misled investors, violating U.S. securities laws. After a four-year claims review process, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman last week entered a $2.46 billion judgment on some claims. Today, the judge ordered the parties to produce a schedule for developing evidence, a process known as discovery, to resolve about 200 more claims. Guzman rejected a request by defense attorney Mark E. Rakoczy to delay the discovery process until a federal appeals court rules on the bank’s challenge to the trial’s outcome.
