Alexander “Sasha” Aganin

Sasha Aganin specializes in addressing complex financial issues arising in litigation. He has worked extensively to lead the firm’s efforts in securities matters and bankruptcy disputes. In addition, he has contributed significantly in other areas involving financial institutions, such as antitrust matters related to financial markets and institutions. Many of his cases involve risk analysis and modeling. Dr. Aganin has assessed economic losses, loss causation, and valuation for companies and investors in a wide range of industries, including private equity and asset management and across all classes of financial instruments. He has experience in all aspects of litigation, including deposition and trial, and has managed large teams working with multiple experts. He has also provided economic and statistical analyses in a variety of internal investigations. Dr. Aganin has coauthored publications related to securities class action filings, damages in bankruptcy matters, corporate ownership, valuation, and equity financing. His experience includes:

• Securities—diverse experience in securities matters over the years; testified on class certification issues, loss causation, and damages; analyzed materiality, loss causation, and damages in securities cases involving stocks, bonds, mutual funds, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities; assessed possible manipulation of markets for futures contracts and securities of individual issuers; examined the market impact of short sales; and investigated possible insider trading in various settings. Dr. Aganin has worked on several notable cases, including In re AOL Time Warner Inc. Securities Litigation, In re Vivendi Universal S.A. Securities Litigation, Bell et al. v. Ascendant Solutions Inc. et al., In re Superior Offshore International Inc. Securities Litigation, and SEC v. Mozilo, Sambol, and Sieracki.
• Risk analysis/modeling—applied graduate-level training in applied mathematics and finance in many projects, e.g., analyzed hedging by counterparties to total return swap contracts, analyzed the sensitivity of asset-backed securities values to interest rates, valued cash flows from management of pension fund assets using Monte Carlo techniques, summarized risk characteristics of a portfolio of derivative securities, and assessed risk characteristics of reference obligations in a credit default swap. Dr. Aganin’s case experience includes the successful trial in CSX v. TCI et al. 
• Private equity—developed a deep understanding of the economics of private equity and hedge funds, including investment and financing strategies, competition, structure of funds, drivers of value, and compensation issues. Examples of case experience include: valued a venture capital management company; analyzed investment and exit strategies, performance, and valuation of portfolio companies of a venture capital fund; evaluated profitability and risk of investment strategies of hedge funds; valued a company in the context of a post-leveraged buyout dispute; and addressed damages in a lawsuit brought by trustees of a failed fund of hedge funds against a third party.
• Finance/antitrust—addressed issues related to market structure, competition, class certification, and damages in municipal derivatives antitrust investigations, In re Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation, and private equity antitrust matters, and assessed possible manipulation in setting a major interest rate benchmark.
• Asset management—numerous matters involving mutual funds and other traditional asset managers, e.g., calculated the impact of errors in an algorithmic trading strategy and in valuation of illiquid bonds on customer accounts, investigated the consistency of regulatory reporting of data by financial institutions, and addressed damages in several mutual fund matters.
• Bankruptcy and financial distress—a number of projects, e.g., assessed solvency, capital adequacy, ability to pay debt, and value exchanged in fraudulent transfer matters; testified on damages in a bankruptcy matter; and analyzed damages in “deepening insolvency” and other bankruptcy-related matters. Dr. Aganin’s case experience includes Unsecured Creditors of Iridium v. Motorola Inc., in which our client prevailed at trial.
• Corporate governance—in addition to working on academic research on international finance and corporate governance while at a Ph.D. program, addressed corporate governance in a variety of litigation settings, e.g., performed economic analysis of bargaining positions and transaction terms in a breach of fiduciary duty matter, analyzed allegations that an investment advisor failed to force his client to hedge a large concentrated position in founder stock, and addressed damages issues in a breach of fiduciary duty litigation against main shareholders of a large technology company.