Whistleblower / False Claims Act

Lieff Cabraser has a long and successful track record of winning tough, complex cases on behalf of investors against powerful corporations and corporate executives who have committed securities and financial fraud. We have tried two federal securities class actions to jury verdicts, prevailing in both, including a $170 million verdict. Working with co-counsel, we have achieved verdicts, judgments, and settlements in excess of $2.5 billion for our clients in securities and investor fraud cases.

Certain kinds of financial fraud cases where the victim is the government can also be brought by individuals under the False Claims Act and other statutes. In particular, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides significant incentives and protections for individuals who provide information on violations of federal securities and commodities exchange laws that result in fraud on the government. These violations can include insider trading, accounting fraud, money laundering, bribing a foreign official, manipulating commodities prices, or manipulating currency exchange rates. Reporting individuals (relators) are also entitled to recover a share of monies owing to the government by virtue of tax fraud.

Today, we serve as co-counsel for the relators in an action against State Street Corporation which serves as the contractual custodian for over 40% of public pension funds in the United States. As the contractual custodian, State Street is responsible for undertaking the foreign currency exchange (FX) transactions necessary to facilitate a customer’s purchases or sales of foreign securities.

The complaint charges that State Street violated the California False Claims Act by systematically manipulating the timing of its execution and reporting of FX trades in order to enrich itself, at the expense of California custodial public pension fund clients, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System. The case is in the discovery stage after the trial court denied State Street’s demurrer.

We are investigating multiple financial fraud cases where the government was defrauded and several cases have been filed that remain under seal.

We represent individuals exposing fraud committed against the government (relators) in a wide range of federal False Claims Act and other similar cases. We have the resources, experience, and skill to appropriately investigate even the largest and most complex matters and take them all the way through trial. Learn more about our work in helping individuals expose and stop fraud and obtain meaningful recoveries.