Investment Litigation
Mr. Mandlekar has extensive experience representing aggrieved investors in lawsuits against issuers, investment banks and corporate officers and directors. In 2001, he joined a world-class shareholder litigation firm where he litigated high-profile financial fraud cases in California, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, and Texas courts. Most of these cases involved complex subject matter such as accounting fraud, structured finance and the use of financial derivatives. Many involved claims for billions of dollars in damages.
For example, Mr. Mandlekar represented the University of California in a lawsuit over its investment in Enron—one of the largest and most complicated corporate frauds in American history. The suit primarily targeted the the Wall Street banks accused of structuring complex financial transactions to manipulate Enron’s accounting. As part of this effort, Mr. Mandlekar conducted investigatory interviews of Enron’s former CFO while he was in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting sentencing. He also represented the shareholders of telecom giant Qwest Communications in their securities fraud suit.
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Mr. Mandlekar represented Hong Kong purchasers of a Cayman Islands structured bond offering in their effort to recover $1.5 billion in In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.—the largest bankruptcy in American history—in the Southern District of New York. He also represented New Hampshire’s state pension fund as plaintiff in the class action jury trial of In re AT&T Corp. Securities Litigation, which resulted in a settlement of $100 million after the plaintiffs presented their case-in-chief.