Below is a piece by Bloomberg on our firm’s $383 million claim against Citigroup. There’s more on this case on the firm’s website at https://www.riklawfirm.com/
Citigroup’s Mathur Said to Depart With Hybrid Traders as Pandit Cuts Jobs By Donal Griffin – Dec 9, 2011
Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-biggest U.S. bank, is shrinking a team of traders who deal in “hybrid” products as Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit cuts Wall Street jobs, two people familiar with the matter said.
Below is an American Lawyer piece which explains our clients’ pending $383 million FINRA arbitration against Citigroup. It goes on to talk about how there are more and more large and complex cases at FINRA. It’s true. As partner John Rich points out at the end of the article, our firm is involved in other multi-million dollar matters at FINRA. In fact, we handled the Bayou v. Goldman FINRA arbitration case which generated a $20.6 million award, and is mentioned in the article. We think FINRA arbitration will continue to attract sophisticated legal disputes because it is more efficient and timely than court litigation.
Too Big for Their Britches?
Nate Raymond
Below is Bloomberg piece about our client’s $383 million FINRA arbitration claim against Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. related to hedge funds, private equity, and derivatives.
Bloomberg
Citigroup Saudi Deal Haunts Pandit By Donal Griffin – Nov 30, 2011
Last week, we wrote about private shares fraud and how we think there may be significant litigation and/or arbitration in the future in this space. Today’s NY Times has a very good Dealbook piece (below) by the “Deal Professor” about the lack of disclosure in the private shares markets of SharesPost and SecondMarket. The most important sentence: “The lack of information combined with this illiquidity contributes to the volatility and mispricing of shares.” That’s spot on. We’re talking about large investments in unregistered shares within an unregulated market. Major exposure to potential fraud. Major.
November 22, 2011, 4:37 pm Private Markets Offer Valuable Service but Little Disclosure By STEVEN M. DAVIDOFF Harry Campbell
Information is the lifeblood of capital markets. In the movie “Wall Street,” Gordon Gekko demanded confidential information from a young would-be Master of the Universe, Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen. The value of stocks is based on information, which is why securities laws are intended to ensure that all investors have at least minimum amounts of information.
Private shares fraud? We’ve been talking about it internally for months. Unregulated space where investors buy and sell private shares often of pre-IPO companies such as Groupon and Facebook. We think the potential fraud claims will occur in the pricing of the private shares. The seller, perhaps a company insider, plays around with valuations. But the Dealbook story posted below of John Mattera is an old school fraud. He allegedly stole people’s money by promising to sell them his personal private shares in high flying pre-IPO companies. Here’s the problem for his “investors”: may be no one to collect from. Mattera likely going to jail. His fund is finished. Good luck trying to sue and collect from the unregistered Long Island firm and/or its principals and the escrow service. What a shame. Private share investors need to be careful out there. Even in the more legitimate secondary private share markets run by larger firms. Due diligence is king.
DealBook – A Financial News Service of The New York Times November 17, 2011, 4:32 pm Manager Who Claimed to Own Facebook Shares Charged With Fraud By KEVIN ROOSE John A. Mattera was arrested in Florida on Thursday.
It may be the new, new thing in fraud.
Below is a Bloomberg article about our firm’s $20.6 million FINRA arbitration award against Goldman Sachs related to Bayou. It’s the largest arbitration award ever rendered against Goldman. The award was confirmed by Judge Rakoff and Goldman filed it’s brief to the Second Circuit.
Goldman Sachs Asks Court to Throw Out $20.5 Million Bayou Creditors’ Award By Bob Van Voris – Oct 15, 2011
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) filed an appeal seeking to dismiss a $20.5 million arbitration award to creditors of the failed hedge fund firm Bayou Group LLC.
Below is a WSJ article about our firm’s $20.6 million FINRA arbitration award against Goldman Sachs related to the Bayou hedge fund fraud. It is the largest arbitration award ever rendered against Goldman. The award was confirmed by Judge Rakoff of the SDNY in November 2010 and Goldman filed it’s brief to the Second Circuit this week.
Goldman Continues to Fight $20.5 Million Award in Pivotal Case By LIZ MOYER
NEW YORK-Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is continuing to fight a $20.5 million arbitration award that, while relatively small from the big bank’s perspective, has broader implications for Wall Street.
Below is an On Wall Street piece about our firm’s representation of a Saudi investor in a $383 million FINRA arbitration against Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.
Citigroup Aims to Stop Arbitration From Proceeding By Lorie Konish, On Wall Street October 7, 2011
A new lawsuit filed by Citigroup Global Markets Inc. this week against a set of Saudi family investors with a $383 million claim against the firm will determine whether that case can proceed to arbitration.
Below is a story about CGMI’s attempt to stay a $383 million FINRA arbitration filed by our firm related to inappropriate behavior with respect to derivatives, hedge funds, and private equity transactions.
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — A Citigroup Inc. unit sued two Saudi investors seeking to block Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration of their $383 million claim that the bank “wiped out” their family’s wealth.
Abdullah and Ghazi Abbar, a father and son from Jeddah who put family money into hedge funds, have no customer agreements or accounts with Citigroup Global Markets Inc., a New York-based broker dealer that they blame for mismanaging their family’s life savings, according to a complaint the Citigroup unit filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan.
OTC Derivatives fraud aspect to an interesting Futures Magazine piece
CFTC, SEC Differ on New Derivatives Rules
6/26/2011
