Lee v. Bankers Trust

Let Lee (plaintiff) was a managing director at the Bankers Trust Company (BT) (defendant). As of April 1994, Lee worked in BT’s Global Security Services practice in New Jersey. In March 1995, BT became concerned about transfers to BT’s reserve account from certain older customers’ accounts that had been unclaimed for a long time. Upon questioning by BT, Harvey Plante stated that Lee instructed Plante to make the transfers. Lee denied Plante’s claim. Per Lee, he told Plante to (1) transfer only certain account funds that were properly documented and that were not potentially escheatable to the government, (2) deep a detailed list of funds in the reserve account, and (3) clear all transfers with BT’s compliance department. After interviewing Lee, BT asked Lee to resign, which Lee did. BT did not publicly comment on Lee’s departure, but the press reported that Lee resigned amid misconduct allegations. Lee sued BT, alleging, among other things, that he was defamed by BT’s alleged filing of a suspicious-activity report (SAR) pursuant to the Annunzio-Wylie Act (A-W Act) with federal prosecutors. BT declined to confirm or deny that it filed a SAR regarding Lee but moved to dismiss Lee’s SAR-based claim for failure to state a claim on the ground that the A-W Act’s safe harbor shielded BT from civil liability regarding any SAR it may have filed. Lee responded that the safe harbor protected BT only if BT made the alleged SAR disclosures in good faith. The district court granted BT’s motion. Lee appealed.