Pangea Capital Management, LLC, Founded by Mark Branigan, Wins RICO Award Against Former Massachusetts Gubernatorial Candidate John R. Lakian

NEW YORK--()--Pangea Capital Management, LLC, a New York investment management firm, announced that it received an arbitration award, on January 4, 2016, in excess of $20 million against John R. Lakian, an executive of Pangea and former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate.

In his 180-page award, Arbitrator Stephen G. Crane of JAMS found that Lakian had defrauded Pangea and breached his fiduciary duties by causing Pangea to invest millions of dollars in a financial services company that came to be known as Capital L Group, LLC, and then, through his position as a member of the board of Capital L, diverting Pangea’s investment to his personal bank account and the accounts of entities he owned and controlled to finance his failed hospitality empire and lavish lifestyle. Noting Lakian’s “racketeering activities,” his “scheme to defraud and pillage” Pangea and his “rampant self-dealing,” Judge Crane found that Lakian had violated the RICO Act, and awarded Pangea treble damages and attorneys’ fees on its RICO claim, as well as damages for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.

Mark Branigan, Pangea’s founder and managing member, and a long-time investment adviser, stated, “it was a difficult legal battle due to the intricate scheme devised by Mr. Lakian to defraud Pangea and its investors of millions of dollars.” Mr. Branigan continued, “as noted in the Arbitration Award, the claims involved ‘a complex scheme that involved a myriad of transactions too abstruse to unravel except by those formally trained to ferret out and map the trail of multitudinous transfers of funds in and out of numerous accounts held in various names in several different banks.’”

Mr. Branigan, who is also the trustee of his late sister Laura Branigan’s music portfolio, stated further, “It was only through the sophisticated legal strategy and dedication of my legal team, led by Dean G. Yuzek and Caitlin L. Bronner of Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, that we were able to achieve this result. They relentlessly followed the money trail, uncovered Lakian’s racketeering activities and proved his numerous and various breaches of fiduciary duty, acts of fraud, and violations of the RICO Act.”

Mark Branigan is a Wall Street professional with nearly 25 years’ experience advising private and institutional investors in both traditional, alternative and asset hedging strategies.

Contacts

Pangea Capital Management, LLC
Mark Branigan, 917-653-1553

Release Summary

Pangea Capital Management, LLC, Founded by Mark Branigan, Wins RICO Award Against Former Massachusetts Gubernatorial Candidate John R. Lakian.

Contacts

Pangea Capital Management, LLC
Mark Branigan, 917-653-1553