Judge’s Citi Investment Doesn’t Merit Recusal, Ethics Panel Says

A federal appellate court judge with a stake in Citigroup Inc. doesn’t need to recuse himself from the banking industry’s challenge to an $8 cap on credit card late fees, a federal judiciary oversight committee said.

An investment held by Judge Don Willett of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the country’s second largest credit card issuer was too “indirect and contingent” to trigger a requirement that he recuse himself from the case, Judge Gerald A. McHugh, the acting chairman of the US Judicial Conference’s Committee on Codes of Conduct, said in a letter posted Wednesday. ...