Securities and Financial Products Litigation

---

DiCello Levitt’s Securities and Financial Products Litigation Practice Group represents individuals and institutional investors of all sizes—including banks, pension funds, and fund managers—that have suffered losses due to financial malfeasance and failure to comply with securities regulations. DiCello Levitt pursues the bad actors and obtains compensation for investors’ losses.

DiCello Levitt’s attorneys are recognized as leading experts in prosecuting securities and accounting fraud claims. Our team members have led some of the most complex and notable securities actions ever filed and have recovered tens of billions of dollars for pension fund retirees and other investors.

DiCello Levitt’s attorneys have a proven track record of securing landmark financial recoveries and advancing meaningful reforms in a variety of cases, including those involving omissions and nondisclosure, fraudulent statements and financial schemes, deceptive trade practices, and breaches of duty, as well as matters of market manipulation, takeovers and proxy disputes, and insider trading.

DiCello Levitt’s attorneys have won some of the highest-profile securities actions ever filed, including cases against Enron, AOL/Time Warner, BP, Pfizer, Petrobras, and Volkswagen, as well as the $1 billion securities class action against Merck & Co. Inc. over alleged misrepresentations about the safety of its drug Vioxx. Many of our lawyers have worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, prosecuting financial crimes such as those arising from the residential mortgage-backed securities crisis. Collaborating with a team of e-discovery specialists, investigators, and forensic accountants with federal and state law enforcement experience, our attorneys are quick to grasp complex structured finance issues, from mortgage-backed and asset-backed collateralized debt obligations to credit-default swaps and credit-linked notes. When we suspect financial misconduct, we initiate an investigation, determine what happened, and ultimately present compelling evidence to secure the necessary and typically massive recoveries for our clients.

DiCello Levitt was named one of the 2023 Top Boutiques by the Daily Journal in recognition of our leadership in “huge and international” securities litigation matters and legal excellence in the state of California.

DiCello Levitt offers portfolio monitoring via its Global Securities Review, which monitors potential and pending class action securities litigation, including potential actions involving securities purchased on foreign stock exchanges located outside the United States as well as independent securities actions based on state law claims. We also analyze the respective interests of all clients based on their holdings and exposure during the relevant periods. We provide monthly customized reports to each client, detailing the securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative actions in which that specific client may have an interest, including case summaries, claim details, estimated losses on both last-in, first-out (LIFO) and first-in, first-out (FIFO) bases, and other relevant information. We deliver interactive, real-time internet access to data, analysis, and all other relevant information contained in the monthly reports.

Nearly 30 years ago, Securities Practice Group Chair Patrick Daniels pioneered portfolio monitoring with the creation of a proprietary software platform that currently monitors the investment portfolios of hundreds of institutional investors around the world with more than $4 trillion in assets under management.

Representative Matters

United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, et al. v. Syneos Health Inc., et al.

DiCello Levitt serves as Lead Counsel in a national securities class action against Syneos Health Inc. and its former executives. The lawsuit alleges that Syneos made misleading statements about the collapse of its new business and nearly $3 billion in uncollectable receivables and, as a result, defrauded purchasers of Syneos common stock.

In re Enron Corporation Securities Litigation

DiCello Levitt attorneys were among the more than 70 attorneys who led this historic action that obtained a $7.2 billion recovery—the largest securities class action recovery in history—for investors, primarily from Wall Street’s largest banks and the company’s auditor, Arthur Andersen.

AOL Time Warner Individual Actions

DiCello Levitt attorneys devised a creative and unique strategy to pursue an institutional investor group action to recover losses resulting from the disastrous merger of AOL and Time Warner. The group action for dozens of institutional investors, including state and local pension funds and multi-employer funds, was ultimately successful in recovering $629 million for investors.

Merck & Co. Inc. Securities, Derivative & “ERISA” Litigation

A DiCello Levitt attorney was an integral member of the Co-Lead Counsel team that secured a unanimous decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of shareholders with respect to

the statute of limitations for securities fraud claims and that ultimately secured a settlement for more than $1 billion on behalf of the lead plaintiffs, including the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi, and the class.

In re Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation

DiCello Levitt Founding Partner Adam Levitt served on the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, recovering over $500 million for shareholders.

National Credit Union Administration Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities

Actions

A DiCello Levitt partner served as Lead Counsel in more than a dozen high-profile securities actions that National Credit Union Administration brought against international investment banks for alleged misrepresentations made to investors in connection with subprime-backed residential mortgage securities. Those actions were resolved through settlements totaling more than $4.5 billion.

Department of Justice Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Civil Actions

A DiCello Levitt attorney, on behalf of the United States, led the investigation, litigation, and over $2 billion resolution of civil fraud claims in connection with the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Jones v. Pfizer Inc.

DiCello Levitt attorneys were integral members of the team that prosecuted investors’ claims resulting from losses due to an extensive off-label marketing scheme perpetrated by Pfizer. The team ultimately prevailed and recovered $400 million for the investors and the class.

In re Dynegy Inc. Securities Litigation

A DiCello Levitt attorney was one of the lead lawyers prosecuting Dynegy and its executives for a secret financing scheme for a series of natural gas trades that grossly overstated the power generator’s cash flow for over a year. After the company withdrew a prior $250 million settlement offer, the DiCello Levitt partner then spent months preparing for the only major deposition in the case, of the chief financial officer, and within weeks following that deposition, the investors’ claims were resolved for $475 million.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank v. Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc.

Following the devastating global financial crisis, DiCello Levitt attorneys developed and launched a groundbreaking investor group action seeking to hold bankers and the rating agencies liable for intentionally false ratings given to a structured finance product known as Cheyne SIV. The innovative and novel theories of the case against the rating agencies were successfully resolved in favor of an international group of over a dozen institutional investors.

In re PNC Financial Securities Litigation

A DiCello Levitt attorney served as Co-Lead Counsel in this litigation, which secured, in conjunction with related proceedings brought by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, a settlement fund of more than $203 million for investors in PNC common stock.

In re Cardinal Health Inc. Securities Litigation

DiCello Levitt attorneys were integral members of the team that obtained a $600 million recovery for investors in Cardinal Health, one of the largest drug distributors in Ohio. The recovery remains one of the largest securities fraud class action recoveries in the Sixth Circuit.

In re Martha Stewart Living, Omnimedia Securities Litigation

A DiCello Levitt attorney served as Lead Counsel and secured more than $35 million for shareholders in this litigation, in which the central issue was whether insider trading allegations against Martha Stewart were material to the financial health of her named company.

In re WorldCom Securities Litigation.

In an innovative and creative institutional investor group action, DiCello Levitt attorneys organized and launched actions for dozens of public and private pension funds for their losses resulting from WorldCom bond offerings just before the scandalous and spectacular collapse of the company. Our attorneys were integral members of the team that ultimately recovered over $650 million for WorldCom bond investors—the largest opt-out (non-class) securities action recovery in history.