Vincent Briganti, Partner

Phone: 914-733-7221
Fax: 914-997-0035
E-mail: vbriganti@lowey.com
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New York Office
White Plains Plaza
One North Broadway
White Plains, NY 10601-2310

Vincent Briganti is a partner of the firm and heads the firm's commodity litigation practice group, one of the premier commodity litigation practice groups in the country. Mr. Briganti also works extensively in the firm's other investor litigation practices involving securities fraud, antitrust violations, and compliance with the federal securities laws governing investment advisors, investment companies, and large equity owners.

Current Cases:

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 certified class action involving the manipulation of New York Mercantile Exchange ("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. To date, Mr. Briganti, as Co-Lead Counsel, has achieved significant victories for Plaintiffs and the Class. For instance, 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. Amaranth, 612 F. Supp.2d 376 (S.D.N.Y. 2009). On April 30, 2010, Judge Scheindlin granted Plaintiffs' motion for class certification, 269 F.R.D. 366 (S.D.N.Y. 2010), and on December 30, 2010, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied Amaranth Advisors LLC's petition for appellate review of the class certification decision. Plaintiffs have also successfully obtained a pre-judgment attachment award in the amount of $72.4 million against the assets of Defendant Amaranth LLC, the "Master Fund" in the Amaranth hedge fund family. 711 F. Supp.2d 301 (S.D.N.Y. 2010). In late 2011, the Amaranth Defendants and Plaintiffs agreed to settle the case for $77.1 million. Final court approval of the settlement is pending.

Mr. Briganti serves as member of four firm executive committee in a class action alleging the manipulation of Commodity Exchange Inc. ("COMEX") silver futures and options contracts. In re Commodity Exchange, Inc., Silver Futures and Options Trading Class Action, Case No. 1:11-md-02213. Plaintiffs allege that, between June 1, 2008 and the present, Defendants conspired to intentionally and unlawfully suppress and manipulate the price of COMEX silver futures and options contracts. The case is currently pending before the Honorable Robert P. Patterson, Jr. in the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Briganti serves as co-lead counsel in In re: Optiver Commodities Litigation, Case No. 08 CV 6842 (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. The case is currently pending before the Honorable Loretta A. Preska in the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Briganti serves as co-lead counsel in a proposed class action involving the alleged manipulation of rough rice futures and options traded on the Chicago Board of Trade ("CBOT"). Laydon v. Daniels et al., Case No. 11-cv-618 (N.D. Ill.). Plaintiffs allege that, between at least October 1, 2007 and July 31, 2008, Defendants repeatedly injected unlawful trades and positions into the supply-demand equation for prices of rough rice futures and option contracts traded on the CBOT. The case is currently pending before the Honorable John W. Darrah in the Northern District of Illinois.

Mr. Briganti also currently represents commodity traders in actions involving the alleged manipulation of CME Eurodollar futures and options contracts and NYMEX WTI crude oil futures and options contracts.

Noteworthy Achievements:

Lowey Dannenberg with Mr. Briganti served as one of three executive committee members in In re Sumitomo Copper Litigation, Master File No. 96 CV 4854 (S.D.N.Y.)(Pollack, J.). Plaintiffs' counsels' efforts in Sumitomo resulted in a settlement on behalf of the certified class of in excess of $149 million, which is the largest class action recovery in the history of the CEA. In re Sumitomo Copper Litig., 182 F.R.D. 85, 95 (S.D.N.Y. 1998).

Mr. Briganti served as co-lead counsel in In re: Natural Gas Commodity Litigation, Case No. 03 Civ. 6186 (VM) (AJP) (S.D.N.Y.), a certified class action on behalf of NYMEX natural gas futures traders against the nation's largest natural gas marketing companies. Total settlements obtained in this complex litigation amounted to nearly $101 million, the third largest recovery in the history of the CEA.

Mr. Briganti served as class counsel and counsel to certified class representative Richard Hershey in a class action alleging manipulation by PIMCO of the multi-billion dollar market of U.S. 10-Year Treasury Note futures contracts traded on the CBOT. Hershey v. Pacific Inv. Management Co. LLC, 571 F.3d 672 (7th Cir. 2009). The case settled in 2011 for $118,750,000, the second largest recovery in the history of the CEA.

Other notable achievements of Mr. Briganti include when he and his partner, Stephen Lowey, obtained emergency injunctive relief to prevent the Government of Argentina from canceling outstanding bonds with a face value of more than $500 million, which had been erroneously tendered by holders of those bonds. Federated Investment Management Company, et al., v. Republic of Argentina, et al., 10 Civ. 4324 (TPG) (S.D.N.Y. 2010).

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.