Vincent Briganti

Vincent Briganti is a partner of the firm and co-heads the firm's commodity litigation practice group. Mr. Briganti also works extensively in the firm's other investor litigation practices and represents investors, investment advisors and commodities traders in actions involving commodity manipulation, securities fraud, antitrust violations, and compliance with the federal securities laws governing investment advisors, investment companies, and large equity owners.Mr. Briganti serves as co-lead counsel in In re: Natural Gas Commodity Litigation, Case No. 03 Civ. 6186 (VM) (AJP) (S.D.N.Y.), a class action in which significant victories for Plaintiffs were achieved throughout the litigation including: defeating defendants’ motions to dismiss, prevailing on a motion to enforce subpoenas issued by two publishers of natural gas price indices for the production of trade report data, and, most importantly, a decision certifying a class of NYMEX natural gas futures traders who were harmed by defendants’ manipulation of the price of natural gas futures contracts traded on the NYMEX from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2002. The total settlement obtained in this complex litigation—almost $101 million—is the second largest class-action recovery in the history of the Commodity Exchange Act.

Mr. Briganti currently serves as co-lead counsel in In re: Amaranth Natural Gas Commodity Litigation, Case No. 07 Civ. 6377 (SAS) (S.D.N.Y.), a proposed class action involving the manipulation of NYMEX natural gas futures and options contract prices by Amaranth Advisors LLC, one of the largest natural gas hedge funds prior to its widely-publicized collapse in September 2006.  On April 27, 2009, the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin, District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, sustained Plaintiffs’ claims for primary violations and aiding and abetting violations of the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act against Amaranth Advisors LLC and other Amaranth Defendants. In re Amaranth Natural Gas Commodities Litig., 612 F. Supp.2d 376 (S.D.N.Y. 2009). On April 30, 2010, Judge Scheindlin granted Plaintiffs’ motion for pre-judgment attachment in the amount of $72.4 million pursuant to Rule 64 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Section 6201 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules against Amaranth LLC, a Cayman Islands company and the "Master Fund" in the Amaranth master-feeder-fund hedge fund family. In re Amaranth Natural Gas Commodities Litig., Slip Copy, 2010 WL 1838718 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 3, 1010) (Scheindlin, J.).

Mr. Briganti also serves as co-lead counsel in In re: Optiver Commodities Litigation, Case No. 08 CV 6842 (LAP) (S.D.N.Y.), a proposed class action involving the alleged manipulation of NYMEX (light sweet crude oil, heating oil and gasoline) futures contracts prices by Optiver US, LLC and other Optiver defendants.

Mr. Briganti currently represents Richard Hershey, one of the class representatives in Hershey v. Pacific Investment Management Corp., a certified class action alleging manipulation of the multi-billion dollar market of U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note futures contracts traded on NYMEX by PIMCO. On July 7, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s Order granting Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. Hershey  v. Pacific Inv. Management Co. LLC, 571 F.3d 672 (7th Cir. 2009), rehearing and rehearing en banc denied on July 31, 2009. On October 29, 2009, PIMCO filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States with respect to the July 7, 2009 Opinion and the July 31, 2009 denial of a petition for rehearing of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the District Court’s Order granting class certification.   On February 22, 2010, the United States Supreme Court denied PIMCO’s Petition for a Writ of Certiorari. Pacific Inv. Management Co. LLC v. Hershey, 130 S. Ct. 1504, 176 L.Ed.2d 151 (2010).

Mr. Briganti is also counsel for plaintiffs in the proposed class action against Moore Capital relating to manipulation of NYMEX palladium and platinum futures prices in 2007 and 2008. White v. Moore Capital Management, L.P., Case No. 10 CV 3634 (WHP)(S.D.N.Y.) 

Mr. Briganti had key roles in Lowey Dannenberg's prosecution of the following cases which have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries for investors, including In re HealthSouth Corp. Securities Litig., Glickenhaus & Co. v. DaimlerChrysler AG, In re Seagate Technology, Inc. Shareholders Litig., In re Mercedes-Benz Antitrust Litig., In re Automotive Refinishing Products Litig., Broder v. MBNA, Snyder v. Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co., and Duke v ReliaStar Life Ins. Co.

Mr. Briganti is admitted to both the New York and Connecticut State bars and is a member of the bars of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd and 8th Circuits, and U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Mr. Briganti received his J.D. from New York Law School in 1996, where he graduated with honors and served as a senior editor of the New York Law School Journal of International and Comparative Law, and he received a B.A. in Political Science from Iona College with honors in 1993.