Christopher J. Gray, P.C., along with co-counsel, has filed a putative class action alleging the hedge fund Moore Capital violated the antitrust laws by manipulating the prices of palladium and platinum via a scheme of orchestrated trading during the last few minutes before the expiration of certain futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX") (for which the underlying commodity was platinum or palladium).

 The action, in which an amended complaint is due to be filed on or before August 9, 2010 pursuant to court order, will seek to represent a class of all persons who transacted in physical platinum or palladium conforming to the NYMEX delivery requirements between November 1, 2007 and May 31, 2008. NYMEX rules specify that to conform to delivery requirements platinum and palladium must be 99.95 percent pure and consist of ingots or plates weighing at least ten ounces, each of which is incised with the lot or bar number, weight, grade, name or logo of the assayer, and symbol identifying the metal.

The case is styled F.W. DeVito Inc. Retirement Trust v. Moore Capital Management, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Docket No. 10-CV-4630 (WHP).  The complaint is accessible below.  

moore complaint file stamped.pdf (362.73 kb)

Christopher J. Gray, P.C. and its co-counsel have filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the dismissal of the complaint in an action alleging that the major underwriters of title insurance conspired to fix the premiums for title insurance at an artificially high level.  The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas dismissed the complaint based on a technical legal principle known as the filed rate doctrine, which essentially holds that rates approved by a government regulator cannot be challenged under the antitrust laws even if it is alleged that those same rates were achieved via anticompetitive conduct. The U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans affirmed the dismissal. 

The certiorari petition (which contains the orders appealed from as appendices) is accessible below.  

10.6.28 certiorari petition winn v alamo.pdf (332.61 kb)

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently granted the motion filed by plaintiffs (including plaintiff Roberto E. Calle Gracey represented by Christopher J. Gray and Louis F. Burke) seeking a prejudgment attachment of $72.4 million against a master fund entity (Amaranth LLC) associated with the now-defunct hedge fund known as Amaranth. The Amaranth master fund had sought to distribute the $72.4 million to its feeder fund investors (including offshore entities) and also to its former employees as deferred compensation.

The Court granted the order of attachment in In re Amaranth Natural Gas Commodities Litig., No. 07-CV-6377 (SAS), a class action (the "class action") that alleges that various Amaranth entities and certain Amaranth personnel manipulated the prices of New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) natural gas futures contracts during the period February through September, 2006.

Plaintiffs argued that if the money were distributed, plaintiffs would likely be unable to collect any final judgment won in the case since the potential judgment would far exceed the approximately $110 million that the Amaranth master fund would have had left after the proposed $72.4 million distribution. Plaintiffs further argued that they were likely to prevail at trial on their claims given, among other things, the fact that Amaranth’s head trader Brian Hunter has been found liable for market manipulation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in a proceeding that was premised on some of the same trading that underlies the Amaranth class action.

The Amaranth master fund argued that plaintiffs should not be granted attachment because they were unlikely to prevail on their Commodities Exchange Act Section 2(a)(1) agency claims against the Amaranth master fund because (defendant argued) Amaranth’s trading advisor entity was not its agent.

Under the Court’s ruling, Amaranth LLC will be prohibited from distributing the $72.4 million in question during the pendency of the class action.

The full text of the Court’s opinion as reported in the New York Law Journal is accessible below.

10.5.10 order of attachment from nylj.pdf (727.18 kb)

Christopher J. Gray obtained an arbitration award in favor of his client, claimant Michael Tartalione, in a FINRA arbitration proceeding concluded on April 7, 2010.  The FINRA arbitration panel granted the claimant an award of liability against repondent American Capital Partners, LLC of Melville, New York and awarded claimant damages of $232,000 plus interest of nine percent per annum running from September 1, 2008 until the date the award is paid.  In all, the award with accrued interest grants claimant approximately $268,000 in relief to date.

Claimant's testifying expert witness was Frederick W. Rosenberg of PCA Forensics in East Hanover, NJ. 

 The arbitration award is accessible below. 

10.4.20 award for claimant.pdf (177.46 kb)

Christopher J. Gray. P.C. and its co-counsel filed a Second Amended Complaint on March 31, 2010 containing substantial new allegations concerning Bank of America's alleged knowledge of and substantial assistance provided to the now-defunct Ponzi scheme operation known as Agape World. 

 The Second Amended Complaint alleges, among other things, that Bank of America ignored the fact that a total of over $2 billion passed through Agape's accounts despite Agape's having no legitimate business reason for such transfers of money (which are a classic red flag of racketeering and money laundering).  The Second Amended Complaint also alleges that Bank of America helped Agape solicit investors from Bank of America's own customers.

 In preparing the Second Amended Complaint, counsel for plaintiffs engaged in a substantial investigation  that included a comprehensive review of Agape and Bank of America documents produced in accordance with the Court-ordered subpoena to the Agape Bankruptcy Trustee; an analysis of Agape investor documents; scores of interviews with former Agape employees and Agape investors; consultations with a former Federal Reserve official and banking compliance expert; independent research concerning Bank of America procedures; and the review of news accounts, court papers and other publicly available documents. 

 A full copy of the Second Amended Complaint can be accessed below.  

10.3.31 second amended complaint.pdf (196.13 kb)

The Gray firm represents the plaintiff in the case Crowe v. JP Morgan Chase & Co., as successor in interest to The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., Docket No. 09-CV-778 pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  The Court recently denied the plaintiffs’ motion not to have their case consolidated with the class action case on behalf of Bear, Stearns investors that is pending in the same court.  The Court reasoned that there were factual and legal issues in common between the class action between the class action and the Crowe case and that adjudicating the cases together would be more efficient and fair to all parties.  The Court’s order can be accessed below.

09.11.13 order motion to not consolidate.pdf (223.74 kb)

Christopher J. Gray, P.C. has filed a class action complaint alleging that Washington Mutual failed to pay its Texas-based retail loan consultants overtime wages as required by state and federal law.  The class action complaint seeks certification of a class pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(2) and (b)(3) of all retail loan consultants, regardless of precise title, employed by defendant in the State of Texas and paid on a commission basis between August 27, 2005 and August 26, 2009 and also seeks certification of a narrower class of retail loan consultants pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The class action complaint is accessible below. 

09 8 27 complaint.pdf (197.50 kb)

Christopher J. Gray, P.C. and its co-counsel for plaintiffs have filed a motion for class certification in the Amaranth commodities manipulation class action case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  The motion seeks certification of all persons, corporations, and other legal entitied (other than defendants) who purchased or sold the New York Mercantile Exchange ("NYMEX") natural gas futures contracts (including miNY Henry Hub natural gas futures contracts) between February 16, 2006 and September 28, 2006 ("Class Period").

A copy of the moving memorandum of law (as redacted for public filing with the Court) is accessible below.

09.10.15 class cert memo of law.pdf (319.24 kb)

Chistopher J. Gray. P.C. and its co-counsel filed an Amended Complaint in the consolidated class action lawsuit against, among others, Bank of America and certain commodities Futures Commission Merchants alleging aiding and abetting commodities fraud in connection with a fraudulent "Ponzi" scheme known as Agape operated by a man named Nicholas Cosmo (who has also been charged with several crimes by the United States government arising out of the same scheme).

The Amended Complaint, filed July 17, 2009, alleges that Bank of America aided and abetted Cosmo and Agape's scheme by: 

  a.   allowing Cosmo, a convicted felon, to open, direct, control and haveextraordinary access to at least two dozen accounts under different names (among which accounts Cosmo regularly made multi-million dollartransfers of funds);

  b.   enabling Cosmo and Agape to transfer investor funds between different named accounts, in effect, "sweeping" all monies into one account controlled by Cosmo;

  c.   providing Agape with confidential customer account information for Agape to utilize in soliciting new investors;

  d.   assigning one or more representatives to work directly out of Cosmo's office, which was approximately 28 miles from the branch where Agape and Cosmo had their bank accounts;

  e.   providing its on-site representatives at Agape with bank equipment and/or computer systems to enable them to directly access Bank of America'saccounts and computer systems, monitor and check account balances, accept deposits and issue checks, directly from Agape's office; and

  f.   approving and effecting, on a regular basis, transfers of up to $100 milliondollars in wires from Agape's accounts to commodities and futures trading firms.

The Amended Complaint further alleges that Bank of America provided Agape and Cosmo with this extraordinary assistance even though Bank of America's onsite representatives had actual knowledge that Cosmo was commingling investor money, diverting investor money to his own accounts, engaging invirtually no legitimate business whatsoever and speculatively trading investor money in the commodities markets as an unregistered commodities pool.

The defendants' response to the Amended Complaint is due to be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on August 31, 2009.  The Amended Complaint and the indictment of Cosmo are accessible below.

09.7.17 cac.pdf (147.25 kb)

cosmo indictment.pdf (388.21 kb)

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Judge Shira A. Scheindlin) has denied several defendants' renewed motions to dismiss the commodities manipulation class action complaint against a hedge fund known as Amaranth.  The Court has now denied motions to dismiss filed by two of Amaranth's domestic feeder funds, its master fund Amaranth LLC, its trading advisor, and the traders who allegedly carried out a market manipulation scheme and caused artificial prices in the market for natural gas futures during much of 2006.

 Christopher J. Gray, P.C. represents the plaintiffs in the case, along with five other law firms.  

The Court's decision can be accessed below.

09.4.27 decision and order.pdf (1.23 mb)