Anwar et al v. Fairfield Greenwich Limited et al

Filing 1410

ENDORSED LETTER addressed to Judge Victor Marrero from Andrew Gordon dated 9/03/2015 re: We represent Citco in the above-referenced action. As requested by the Court, we are submitting this letter in response to the August 21, 2015 letter submitted by the New Greenwich Litigation Trustee, LLC, as Successor Trustee of the Greenwich Sentry and Greenwich Sentry Partners Litigation Trust (the "Trustee"), concerning certain objections raised by the Trustee to the proposed settlement between the Anwar plaintiffs and Citco. ENDORSEMENT: The Clerk of Court is directed to enter into the public record of this action the letter above submitted to the Court by Citco Defendants. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Victor Marrero on 9/08/2015) (ama)

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PAUL. WEISS, RIFKIND, WHARTON 61' GARRISON LLP 1285 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS NEW YORK. NEW YORK 1001 9-6064 UNIT 3601, OFFICE TOWER A, BEIJING FORTUNE PLAZA NO 7 OONG5ANHUAN ZHONGl,.U CHAOYANG DISTRICT TELEPHONE •2121 373·3000 BEIJING 10002.0 PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA LLOYD K GARRISON 'I lili4&-1 QQ1 • RANDOLPH E PAUL t 1946·1956· SIMON H RIFKINO 119~0-f995J LOUIS S WEISS 1 I 927·19501 JOHN F WHARTON TELEPHONE ~86·101 5828-6300 I 2TH FLOOR. HONG KONG CLUB BUILDING 3A CHATER ROAD. CENTRAL (!Q27·1977• HONG KONG TELEPHONE 1esz, 2846-0300 MATTHEW W. ABBOTT £OW.A.ROT. ACKERMAN ALLAN J ARFFA ROBERT A ATKINS OAVIO J BALL JOHN F. BAUGHMAN LYNN B. BAYARD DANIEL. J BEL.l..ER CRAIG A BENSON MITCHELL L. BERG MARK S BERGMAN BRUCE BIRENBOIM H. CHRISTOPHER BOEHNING ANGELO BONVJNO JAMES L. BftOCHIN RICHARD J BRONSTEIN DAVID W. BROWN SUSANNA M. BUERGEL PATRICK S. CAMPBELL'" JESSICA S CAREY JEANETTE K. CHAN YVONNE Y F. CHAN ROBERTA A. KAPLAN BRADS KA.RP PATRICK N KARSNITZ JOHN C K£NNEOV BRIAN KIM ALAN W KORNBERG DANIEL J KRAMER OAVIO K LAKHOHIR STEPHEN P LAMB"' JOHN E LANGE DANIEL J LEFFELL XIAOYU GREG LIU JEFFREY 0 MAR.ELL MARCO V. MASO TT I EDWIN 5 MAYNARD DAVID W, MAYO ELIZABETH R- MCCOLM MARK F MENDELSOHN WILLIAM B. MICHAEL TOBY 5. MYERSON CATHERINE NYARADY JANE B. O'BRIEN LEWIS Ft CLAYTON 10 NOBLE STREET WRITER'S DIRECT DIAL NUMBER LONDON EC2V 7JU, UK. TELEPHONE 144 2.01 7367 1600 212-373-3543 FUKOKU SEIMEI BUILDING WAITEfll'S DIRECT FACSIMILE 2-2 UCHISAIWAJCHO 2-CHOME CH1YOOA·KU, TOKYO 100-001 I. JAPAN 212-492-0543 TELEPHONE !6f-3f 3597-6101 WAITER'S DIRECT E-MAIL ADDRESS TORONTO-DOMINION CENTRE 77 KING STREET WEST. SUITE 3100 agordon@paulweiss.com PO BOX 2Z6 TORONTO. ONTARIO M5K IJ3 TELEPHONE 14161 504·0!520 2..00 I I< STREET. NW WASHINGTON, OC 20006-1047 TELEPHONE c202t 223·7300 500 DELAWARE AVENUE. SUITE 200 POST OFFICE SOX S2 WILMINGTON, DE 1 Q6$illi'·0032 TELEPHONEt3021~55-4410 September 3, 2015 ALEX YOU NG K OH JAY COHEN ALDER CASTLE eRAD R OKUN KELLEY D PARKER MARC E. PERLMUTTER VALERIE E RADWANER CARLL. AEISNER L.ORIN L REISNER WALTER G RICCIARDI WALTER RIEMAN RICHARD A ROSEN ANDREW N. ROSENBERG JACQUELINE P RUBIN RAPHAEL M. RUSSO ELIZABETH M. SACKSTEDER JEFFREY D. SAFERSTEIN JEFFREY B SAMUELS DAL..E M. SARRO TERRYE SCHIMEK KENNETH M. SCHNEIDER ROBERT B. SCHUMER JOHN M SCOTT STEPHEN J SHIMSHAK DAVID R SlCULAR MOSES SILVERMAN STEVEN SIMKIN JOSEPH J SIMONS AUDRA J SOl...OWAY SCOTT M. SONTAG TARUN M. STEWART ERIC ALAN STONE AIDAN SYNNOTT ROBYN F TARNOFSKY MONICA K THURMOND DANIEL J. TOAL LIZA M. VELAZQUEZ MARIA T VULLO ALEXANDRA M WALSH .. LAWRENCE G WEE THEODORE V WELLS. JR eETH A WILKINSON STEVEN J WILLIAMS LAWRENCE I WITDORCHIC MA~K B. WLAZL.O JULIA MASON WOOD JENNIFER H WU JORDAN E. YARETT KAYE N YOSHINO TONG YU TRACEY A ZACCONE TAUAIE M ZEITZER T ROBERT ZOCHOWSKI. JR KELLEY A CORNISH CHRISTOPHER J. CUMMINGS CHARLES E OAVIOOW THOMAS V. OE LA BASTIOE 111 ARIEL J. DECKELBAUM ALICE BELISLE EATON ANDREW J EHRLICH GREGORY A. EZRING LESLIE GORDON FAGEN MARC FALCONE ROSS A. FIELDSTON ANDREW C_ FINCH BRAD J FINKEL.STEIN BRIAN P FINNEGAN ROBERTO FINZI PETER E FISCH ROSE~T C FL.EOER MARTIN Fl...UMENBAUM ANDREW J. FOLEY HARRIS B. FREIOUS MANUEL 5. FREY ANDREW L GAINES KENNETH A GALLO MICHAEL. E. GERTZMAN ADAM M GIVERTZ SALVATORE GOGLIORMELLA ROBERT D. GOLDBAUM NEJL GOLDMAN CATHERINE L GOODALL ERIC GOOOISON CHARLES H GOOGE, JR ANDREW G GORDON UOIGROFMAN NICHOLAS GROOMBRIDGE BRUCE A GUTENPLAN GAINES GWATHMEY, 111 ALAN .6. HALPERIN JUSTING HAMILL CLAUDIA HAMMERMAN GERARD E. HARPE.Pl BRIAN S. HERMANN MICHELE HIRSHMAN MICHA!.L. S HONG DAVIDS. HUNTINGTON AMRAN HUSSEIN LOP:ETTA A l~POLITO BRIAN M JANSON JARE.N JANGHORBANI MEREDITH J KANE ·Nor ADMITTE(J TO 1 H[ NCW YORK BAR By Hand The Honorable Victor Marrero United States District Judge Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse 500 Pearl St. New York, NY 10007-1312 Anwar, et al. v. Fairfield Greenwich Limited, et al., No. 09-cv-118 (S.D.N.Y.) (VM) (FM) Dear Judge Marrero: We represent Citco in the above-referenced action. As requested by the Court, we are submitting this letter in response to the August 21, 2015 letter submitted by the New Greenwich Litigation Trustee, LLC, as Successor Trustee of the Greenwich Sentry and Greenwich Sentry Partners Litigation Trust (the "Trustee"), concerning certain objections raised by the Trustee to the proposed settlement between the Anwar plaintiffs and Citco. We have read the letter submitted by plaintiffs in response to the Trustee's letter and join it in full. We wish to briefly make two additional points. First, we agree with plaintiffs that the Trustee lacks standing to object to the proposed settlement. See Cent. States Se. & Sw. Areas Health & Welfare Fund v. Merck-Medco Managed Care, L.L.C., 504 F.3d 229, 244 (2d Cir. 2007). We respectfully submit that the Second Circuit's decision in Bhatia v. Piedrahita, 756 F.3d 211 (2d Cir. PAUL. WEISS, RIFKIND, WHARTON & GARRISON LLP 2 The Honorable Victor Marrero 2014)-which arises from this action-is squarely on point. There, the Second Circuit held that PwC and Citco did not have standing to object to a provision in the Fairfield Defendants' settlement that PwC and Citco contended would deny them the ability to raise "defenses against the settling plaintiffs in other fora[.]" Id. at 218. The court reasoned that "a settlement which does not prevent the later assertion of a non-settling party's claims (although it may spawn additional litigation to vindicate such claims), does not cause the non-settling party 'formal' legal prejudice." Id. at 219. The court explained that because nothing in the Fairfield Defendants' settlement precluded PwC and Citco "from asserting ... in other litigation any claims or defenses that may be available to them," PwC and Citco could not establish formal legal prejudice and thus lacked standing to object. Id. at 218-19. So too here. As plaintiffs' letter explains, the challenged provision in Paragraph 19 of the proposed settlement neither determines Citco's offset rights nor precludes the Trustee from making any arguments in opposition to those rights in other proceedings. As such, that provision in no way "formally strips" the Trustee of any claim or defense. Id. at 218 (emphasis omitted). Like PwC and Citco in Bhatia, the Trustee thus has no standing to assert its objections. 1 Second, any suggestion by the Trustee that the class notice is somehow deficient because it does not reflect information concerning Citco's offset rights is unavailing. The class notice fully complies with Rule 23(e)(2), which requires only that a class notice be reasonable. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(e)(2). As the Second Circuit has explained, "[t]here are no rigid rules to determine whether a settlement notice to the class satisfies constitutional or Rule 23(e) requirements; the settlement notice must fairly apprise the prospective members of the class of the terms of the proposed settlement and of the options that are open to them in connection with the proceedings." Masters v. Wilhelmina Model Agency, Inc., 473 F.3d 423, 438 (2d Cir. 2007) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The class notice here does just that. Indeed, the class notice is materially indistinguishable from the class notice used for the Fairfield Defendants' settlement. The Second Circuit upheld that notice against a challenge by parties represented by the same counsel representing the Trustee. See Lomeli v. Sec. & Inv. Co. Bahrain, 546 F. App'x 37, 41 (2d Cir. 2013). Any challenge by the Trustee to the class notice here should likewise fail. Respectfully, t2t((!i;UlJ ~7YU Andrew Gordon The Trustee cites National Super Spuds, Inc. v. New York Mercantile Exchange, 660 F.2d 9 (2d Cir. 1981), but does not explain why. In that case, the Second Circuit reversed an order approving a class action settlement that released claims based on both liquidated and unliquidated contracts on the ground that the named plaintiffs, who were parties to liquidated contracts but not any unliquidated contracts, could not adequately represent class members who had claims based on unliquidated contracts. The adequacy of the named plaintiffs' representation of the class is not at issue in this action. National Super Spuds thus has no application here. PAUL. WEISS, RIFKIND, WIIARTON & GARRISON LLP The Honorable Victor Marrero cc: 3 (via email) Robert A. Wallner David A. Barrett Stuart H. Singer Victor E. Stewart Robert C. Finkel Sarah L. Cave Timothy A. Duffy The Clerk of Court is directed to enter into the public record of th. otC~~on the lette7 above sub19itted to :he Court by £" ,. '·i. . _ / / .".!. i..e: t(

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