Testifying Expert Engagements
Engaged as defense counsel’s damages expert in SPAC-related dispute.
Ongoing.
Engaged as claimant’s economic damages expert in AAA employment arbitration.
Ongoing.
Engaged as plaintiff counsel’s damages expert in class action suit
Engaged as plaintiff counsel’s damages expert in class action suit alleging that Neptune cremation services misled plaintiffs by not placing the required percentage of their prepaid funds into trust, and refusing to provide 100 percent refunds upon request (as required by Florida law). Case settled.
Engaged as defense counsel’s damages expert in securities class action matter on behalf of WPP.
Assisted counsel in performing event studies and quantifying damages. Case settled.
Engaged as plaintiff counsel’s damages expert in probate matter.
Evaluated the reasonableness of investments made by a family trust and calculated damages to the trust beneficiaries due to lack of diversification by the trustees. Case settled.
Consulting Expert Engagements / Supporting Other Testifying Experts
Engaged as consulting expert supporting testifying expert in various banking and lendingindustry custom and practice matters
(ongoing)
Issued labor-market wage analysis expert opinion for U.S. immigration petition (EB-1A)
Intercompany loan pricing consulting expert:
Supported disinterested party appointed by a
Michigan state court to investigate a shareholder’s derivative demand made in connection
with a family-owned real estate business. The business owned many apartment buildings
across the United States. One of the key disputes in the matter involved inter-company loans.
Specifically, the question with regard to these loans related to the appropriate inter-company
interest rates given the business, credit risk, term of loan, and other factors. Served as a
consultant working with disinterested party and counsel to discuss how appropriate interest
rates should be determined when loans are made inside of a family-owned company.
Revenue synergy and valuation consulting expert in shareholder derivative suit: Referred testifying expert to counsel.
Supported testifying expert on behalf of counsel representing
stockholders (plaintiffs) in a securities class action against a financial technology company
(defendant). The defendant company purchased an application software company and told
investors that the high purchase price was justified because the business combination would
deliver significant revenue synergies for the company (from cross-selling, leveraging the
brand, upselling current customers, etc.). As a result, investors viewed revenue synergies as
a proxy for the success of the acquisition. The defendant company allegedly stated they were
hitting their revenue synergy targets, leading investors to believe that the acquisition was a
major success. However, Plaintiffs suspected the defendant company manipulated the
revenue synergy calculations to show more revenue synergy than actually earned. Supported
testifying expert to review the company’s revenue synergy calculations and opine on whether
or not the revenue received was classified properly as revenue synergy. Case settled.
Derivatives/market microstructure consulting expert
Derivatives/market microstructure consulting expert in multidistrict litigation involving
antitrust claims brought against investment banks that were dealers in the market for interest
rate swaps. Plaintiffs, a putative class of investors, asserted that Defendants unlawfully
conspired to boycott and otherwise undermine trading platforms that would have supplied
investors with more competitive prices for interest rate swaps. Specifically, Defendants
allegedly prevented the growth of “all-to-all” trading platforms that would have provided
price benefits to investors unavailable in the current over-the-counter model, in which
investors trade IRSs through direct bilateral communications with dealers. Plaintiffs asserted
that Defendants' collusion resulted in inflated spreads on IRSs. Led team supporting
mathematical finance expert (representing Plaintiffs), using bid ask quote data in
econometric models to estimate ‘but for’ IRS spreads and resulting damages.
Valuation and damages consulting expert
Valuation and damages consulting expert in pre-litigation matter involving private equity
firm’s purchase of an education startup. Performed business valuations and calculated
damages stemming from alleged misrepresentations made by startup company.
Statistical sampling consulting expert
Statistical sampling consulting expert in litigation against claims adjuster. Case settled.
Damages consulting expert
Damages consulting expert in wage and hour matters.
Selected Further Consulting Engagements
Structured Finance and Securities
Securities class action (10b-5) suit vs. COVID vaccine manufacturer:
Assisted counsel in
quantifying damages and estimating potential settlement payments. Supported external
expert in rebutting plaintiffs’ class certification report, including assessing plaintiffs’ market
efficiency analyses and investigating named plaintiffs’ trading history in order to demonstrate
lack of economic basis to claim damages as a class. Case settled successfully for our client.
Class action suit involving claims of misrepresentations:
Led a team representing a Silicon
Valley startup in a shareholder class action suit to successfully deny plaintiffs’ class
certification. Retained on behalf of a Silicon Valley startup that was alleged to have made
misrepresentations about its business prospects to shareholders. Supported an in-house
expert to assess whether the alleged misrepresentations impacted the prices of the
company’s privately sold securities on a class-wide basis, and if the claimants would thus be
entitled to damages as a class.
Breach of contract suit based on complex structured finance transactions:
Drove eventual
victory (in Feb. 2023) of client Cerberus in ~ $1 billion breach of contract suit against the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, based on two complex structured finance transactions.
Managed NY-based team of 6 people supporting Professor Allen Ferrell in estimating
damages resulting from the breach of contract. Professor Ferrell testified in 2022 that
damages owed to Cerberus ranged from ~ $800 mm - $1 billion.
Government investigation into rating agency fraud:
Following the 2008 economic collapse,
successfully pitched for and assisted the US government in major fraud investigation
supporting two external academic experts, demonstrating that key modeling inputs used by
the credit rating agency S&P deliberately inflated CDO ratings. Culminated in a multibilliondollar, headline-generating settlement.
Alleged insider trading matter involving consumer credit card transactions:
Led a team
supporting an in-house expert before a Pennsylvania federal jury on behalf of a former Capital
One analyst accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of insider trading. The
analyst allegedly used proprietary data about consumer credit card transactions to trade
ahead of revenue releases from major retail companies. Led a statistical analysis
demonstrating that this credit card purchase data could not have been used to accurately
predict stock performance.
Probate litigation matter:
Led a team that supported an external expert, evaluating the
reasonableness of investments made by a family trust and calculating damages to the trust
beneficiaries due to lack of diversification by the trustees. The matter was settled privately.
Business Valuation, Corporate Governance and M&A
Assessment of fairness of exchange ratio in various stock transactions:
Supported
valuation/damages and industry experts in parallel shareholder litigations involving the
merger of two media companies with a controlling shareholder.
Confidential litigation regarding corporate governance in a limited partnership:
Supported corporate governance expert in preparing expert rebuttal report regarding limited partnership agreements in the context of a complex organizational structure.
Hotel acquisition dispute involving analysis of MAE:
Led a team that supported Professor
Daniel Fischel’s expert testimony, assessing the occurrence of a Material Adverse Event
(MAE) on behalf of MAPS Hotels and Resorts (the buyer and defendant), and prevailing in a
$5.8 billion hotel acquisition dispute with the seller, AB Stable. This was the first post-COVID19 judicial ruling allowing a buyer to avoid closing a previously agreed transaction.
Quantified damages stemming from insurance company bankruptcy:
Led a team supporting
an in-house testifying expert on behalf of the liquidation trustee for a leading title insurance
company. Calculated losses due to alleged failures of the company’s auditors relating to the
financial implications of certain risky investments. Led a team that computed damages from
a fire sale of the company’s two major subsidiaries, including calculating a “but-for” value for
the sold units based on comps and detailed discounted cash flow (DCF) modeling, and
comparing this counterfactual value against the actual, heavily discounted sale price. The
matter was settled privately.
Hotel transaction dispute involving valuation analysis:
Led a team supporting an in-house
valuation expert in a litigation matter regarding the related-party sale of a hotel portfolio. In
addition to valuation, the analysis addressed related claims regarding the efficacy of the M&A
sales process and impact on valuation of a right of first refusal on real estate assets.
Arbitration matter relating to Puerto Rican investments:
Led a team supporting an in-house
testifying expert in arbitration hearings relating to the reasonableness of Puerto Rican
claimants’ investments in closed-end municipal bond funds offered by a major broker-dealer
in Puerto Rico.
Tax and Transfer Pricing
Nortel Network allocation and claims proceeding:
Led a team supporting a transfer pricing
and allocation expert on behalf of the pension claimants of Nortel’s UK subsidiary. In May
2015, two judges simultaneously, but independently called for an allocation of Nortel’s
liquidation proceeds largely proportional to its global creditor claims. This pro rata allocation
was proposed by Dr. Coleman Bazelon, whom Dr. Kumar supported.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax dispute:
Led a team that assisted a US manufacturer in an
IRS tax dispute – and supported a prominent finance academic in developing an expert
opinion – in a litigation involving claims that the manufacturer improperly classified its
intercompany loans as debt to take interest deductions. The analysis involved assessing
Advanced Analytical Consulting Group, Inc. 6
expected risk and interest rates of the inter-company loans, comparing the terms against
control companies, and projecting credit and solvency ratios for the company to assess
likelihood of loan repayment. The manufacturer reached a favorable settlement with the IRS.
General Commercial Disputes
Contractual payment dispute:
Led a team supporting Rajiv Gokhale in the preparation of
expert reports and deposition testimony. Mr. Gokhale’s damages estimate was relied upon
in the successful summary judgment ruling on behalf of clients D.E. Shaw Composite Holdings
and Madison Dearborn Capital Partners IV.