THE PEOPLE v CONFIDENTIALITY
You are the manager of the New York branch of a non-US bank. A
grand jury subpoena -- a court order requiring the production of
documents or the appearance of a witness -- is served on your requiring
the bank to divulge records of a customer's account. Apparently the
customer is suspected of an offence like insider trading -- dealing in
shares on a US stock exchange on the basis of non-public information.
There are problems: neither the client nor the bank's head office
where the client's records are kept are in the US; the bank secrecy
laws in the bank's home country prevent the bank from complying;
and the US court says it will fine your branch $5,000 a say for contempt
in failing to comply with the court order until the records are
produced. What do you do?
First, study the terms of the...
