Swanson, Miller Appointed to Leadership Positions in FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapse Litigation

Fishman Haygood partners Jim Swanson and Kerry Miller recently were appointed to leadership positions in the FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapse Litigation (Case No. 1:23-md-03076). Swanson will serve as a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee, and Miller will chair the Insurance Coverage Committee. Additionally, Fishman Haygood attorneys Hogan Paschal, Ben Reichard, Molly Wells, Rebekka Veith, and Lara Richards will serve on various committees directed at helping victims of the FTX collapse obtain compensation for their losses from companies that aided and abetted the fraud committed by founder Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX. The case will be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Miami Division.

On Feb. 22, 2023, Fishman Haygood and Stumphauzer Kolaya Nadler & Sloman filed the most comprehensive class action lawsuit to date on behalf of FTX customers. The lawsuit seeks to recover damages in the form of investment losses against the banks, venture capital firms, accounting firms, and law firm that allegedly aided and abetted Bankman-Fried and his company in a scheme to defraud customers out of billions of dollars and crypto assets.

With suits across the country pending against Bankman-Fried and FTX, all cases have since been transferred to Judge K. Michael Moore in an MDL (multidistrict litigation). The Fishman Haygood team next will draft a revised complaint due on August 5, 2023.

This type of securities litigation is not unfamiliar territory for Fishman Haygood. The firm recently represented individuals and the Official Stanford Investor’s Committee against five banks, with particular concentration on claims against Trustmark National Bank and Independent Bank of Texas (formerly known as Bank of Houston), in a lawsuit alleging the banks’ aiding and abetting of the $7 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R. Allen Stanford. Settlements of $100 million were reached with both Trustmark and Bank of Houston in early 2023, with total recoveries from all five bank defendants (The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Société Générale Private Banking [Suisse] S.A., HSBC Bank plc, Trustmark, and Bank of Houston) amounting to more than $1.6 billion. Read more here.

Fishman Haygood represents both plaintiffs and defendants in class action and mass action litigation, both in Louisiana and across the nation. Click here for information about some of the matters we have handled.