(Bloomberg) -- Compensation for eight senior Jane Street Group officers was ruled out of bounds as a topic for depositions by Millennium Management in the firms’ trade-secrets fight over an allegedly stolen India options strategy.
US District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Tuesday granted Jane Street’s request to limit several of Millennium’s deposition topics, saying the proprietary trading firm had “legitimate interests in keeping discovery in proper proportion to the needs of the case.”
Jane Street sued two former traders, Doug Schadewald and Daniel Spottiswood, and Izzy Englander’s hedge fund group in April, saying they had stolen the “immensely valuable” strategy, causing it significant losses.
The two traders and Millennium have denied any trade-secrets theft and have also pushed back on the idea that Jane Street suffered any economic harm, pointing out that it had record profits from India options trading after Schadewald and Spottiswood left to join Millennium. The traders said in court filings that they left Jane Street largely over disappointing compensation.
Millennium had sought to ask in depositions about Jane Street’s compensation and retention policies for all employees, as well as whether the firm had ever taken adverse action against any former employee.
Engelmayer ruled that Millennium could ask about compensation only for Schadewald, Spottiswood or other people holding the same job title within Jane Street’s India options group. The judge also said Millennium could ask only about actions against former employees who were accused of misappropriating trade secrets or other confidential information.
He outright struck down as a deposition topic “the amount of income, profits or compensation received by [eight identified senior officers] of Jane Street” for 2022, 2023 and 2024 to date.
Many details of the case have been filed under seal or heavily redacted due to the allegedly confidential information at its core.
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