Skadden securities litigators achieved five significant victories between March 24 and March 30, including:
- a dismissal on behalf of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch of two double-derivative suits that sought to compel the BofA board to force its Merrill subsidiary to bring various claims against certain of Merrill's former officers and directors in connection with Merrill's allegedly risky investments in collateralized debt obligations;
- a dismissal of a putative securities fraud class action against Crystallex International Corp. and certain of its officers and directors involving claims that the company released overly optimistic statements about Crystallex's progress in obtaining a final government permit for a mining project in Venezuela;
- the complete dismissal of 28 putative class claims brought against Tremont Group Holdings, Inc. and Tremont (Bermuda) Limited by offshore hedge fund investors who invested assets with Bernard Madoff. The plaintiffs had alleged that Tremont and others committed fraud and breached contractual and fiduciary duties by failing to detect Madoff's Ponzi scheme prior to investing with him;
- a summary judgment ruling on behalf of The Bank of New York Mellon dismissing claims brought by MBIA Insurance Corp in CDO- related credit events; and
- a FINRA arbitration victory on behalf of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and several former officers and directors of Merrill Lynch in a claim brought by former Merrill co-president, Ahmass Fakahany.