New Jersey partner James Valvano, with assistance from partner Owen McKeon, senior counsel Daniel DiMuro, and associate Jeffrey Kopco, recently successfully concluded a hotly-contested securities fraud case involving civil RICO claims against a number of parties and obtained a favorable settlement on behalf of his clients, the primary investors in a fraudulent hedge fund.
Early in the litigation, Gordon & Rees successfully obtained injunctive relief to freeze the life insurance proceeds of the primary fraudster, who had been killed in a single-car automobile accident under suspicious circumstances. Gordon & Rees later obtained a structured settlement with the widow of the primary fraudster and continued to litigate claims on behalf of their clients against the remaining individuals involved in the sham hedge fund that had bilked millions of dollars from investors.
Just prior to trial, with competing summary judgment motions pending, Gordon & Rees resolved the remaining claims, netting its clients more than $3.4 million in recovery from the more than $2.1 million in investments the clients had made in the fraudulent scheme. Other investors recouped approximately 20-25% of their investments or, in some cases, nothing at all. Gordon & Rees’s aggressive prosecution of the clients’ claims, as well as the quick and structured settlement early in the case, resulted in a much more advantageous recovery for Gordon & Rees’ clients.