Here is a round up of a few interesting business lawsuits making news in Connecticut this past week:
Smoking Gun "Crap" Email In Case Watched by Wall Street
In Pursuit Partners, LLC v. UBS AG, et al., a 35 million dollar prejudgment remedy was awarded in favor of a Connecticut hedge fund against UBS. Judge Blawie issued the order in Stamford Superior Court after finding the bank was in possession of material non-public information regarding downgrades to financial products that UBS continued to sell. This case is getting a lot of attention on Wall Street and reported on by Matthew Goldstein at seekingalpha.com and Serena NG and Carrick Mollenkamp on WSJ.com.
The UBS case will be interesting to watch and is another example of the increasing importance of discovering smoking gun emails. Preliminary discovery in the case turned up internal emails calling some of the financial products "crap." Here is a docket report on the case. (download).
Fairfield Company Uncovers Fraud and Ejects Board Member
Competitive Technologies (CTT), won a contested default judgment for more than $4 million dollars after discovering a former board member took company money and invested it in a fictitious South American company that did not exist. Read the report on the case by Michael Juliano of the Connecticut Post. You can also download here a copy of the judgment from Judge Dorsey who found that the defendants willfully disregarded court orders.
The fraud was uncovered in part by the work of Breen & Associates. I have worked with Bill Breen before on several cases. He is an exceptional fraud investigator and expert. Looks like he successfully uncovered another financial fraud for a business client.
Civil Rights Violations Alleged Against Litchfield In Refusing Jewish Temple
Rabbi Joseph Eisenbach has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Town of Litchfield over the Town’s refusal to permit modification of his property for religious purposes. The complaint (download here) states that the Rabbi is seeking declaratory relief, permanent injunction, and damages for violations of civil rights and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. This case was reported on by Christine Stuart, editor of CTNews Junkie where a reader left some disturbing comments about anti-semitic statements at the commission hearings on the matter.
An attorney for the Town has not yet appeared in the case and no answer has been filed. Given the allegations in this Complaint, this is a case that is likely to stay in the news.