Implode-o-Meter News - In Pursuit of the 10,000% Return - VW Class Action Lawsuit Funded by Hedgie Singer

The trick [for CalSTRS] was to find a case against VW that was being funded by someone else. He flagged one being readied for filing at Braunschweig District Court, about a half-hour drive from VW's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. It was being handled by Quinn Emanuel, a big U.S. law firm that focuses on business litigation. Bentham Europe, a London-based investment firm that specializes in funding lawsuits, was looking for shareholders to join the case. In return for a share of any winnings, Bentham offered to cover all the costs of the action against VW.
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Although Bentham's website doesn't say so, the firm is owned by New York-based Elliott Management, a $28 billion activist hedge fund and one of a growing number to recognize how much money can be made betting on lawsuits. Elliott's founder and president, Paul Singer, is a pugnacious former lawyer with a history of using litigation to get what he wants. In a decade-long legal battle to make Argentina honor its debts following the world's biggest-ever sovereign default, Argentine officials called Elliott a "vulture" and "scum." Undeterred, Singer took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court before Argentina settled earlier this year and agreed to pay Elliott and several other hedge funds $4.65 billion.

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In Pursuit of the 10,000% Return - VW Class Action Lawsuit Funded by Hedgie Singer