 by Mr Gorman'. Frasers pointed to comments made by Mr Gorman before the margin call where he said the company would 'certainly be looking hard at family-office type relationships' It also highlighted a CNBC interview in which Mr Gorman said the bank had 'gone back and looked at all our margin exposures across prime brokerage'. Morgan Stanley's scrutiny of its business with family offices came after the collapse of Archegos Capital Management. The family office of investor Bill Hwang failed after defaulting on margin calls made by numerous banks including Credit Suisse, Nomura, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The collapse collectively cost banks around $10bn (£8.1bn), of which Morgan Stanley's share was $911m (£741m). Mr Hwang, who himself reportedly lost $20bn (£16.2bn) in two days, has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, fraud and market manipulation. Frasers said in its US court filing: 'To date, Morgan Stanley has denied that [Mr Gorman] had any involvement in the matter and has not called him as a witness despite his plain importance to the English proceeding. 'Any briefing materials sent to Mr Gorman prior to his CNBC interview, and any ensuing communications, are likely to contain information highly relevant to the claims in the English proceeding, including Morgan Stanley's conduct and motivations in making and maintaining the margin call.' Morgan Stanley declined to comment when approached by The Telegraph. The bank has in the past denied any wrongdoing in what it has labelled a 'contrived' claim from a company it has never had a direct contractual relationship with. Frasers worked with the Danish investment bank Saxo Bank to help it build its stake in Hugo Boss. Saxo, which passed the margin call from Morga){kind=link}
Retail tycoon pursues case against investment bank over bets on Hugo Boss stock
The chief executive of Morgan Stanley has been dragged into a legal battle between Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group and the bank over a $1bn (£810m) margin call.
Mr Ashley’s company, Frasers Group, has asked a US judge to order James Gorman to produce evidence in a UK lawsuit it is pursuing against Morgan Stanley.
Frasers is suing Morgan Stanley for €50m in damages, claiming the bank “arbitrarily” and “incorrectly” closed out bets on Hugo Boss stock and lost the company millions as a result.
Morgan Stanley demanded $995m from Frasers in May 2021 to back up positions the company had built in the German fashion house’s stock.