Jordan Goldstein is a veteran litigator who specializes in complex financial products and commercial transactions.
Jordan holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and previously worked as a deal attorney, where he structured many of the same types of transactions he now litigates. Jordan is also a former federal prosecutor and served in senior roles in the U.S. Department of Justice, including in the Office of Legal Counsel and as special counsel to the assistant attorney general of the National Security Division.
Admitted to practice in both New York and Florida, as well as in the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts, Jordan has a strong focus on litigating investor and consumer claims. He has represented clients adverse to virtually every major investment bank regarding a range of financial products, including mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, auction-rate securities, credit default swaps, municipal bonds, and insurance policies on financial instruments. He has litigated and appeared in numerous proceedings on behalf of bondholders in which bond payout provisions are in dispute, has litigated hostile takeovers, has been appointed class action counsel in major antitrust litigation, and has defended borrowers in commercial lending transactions. Jordan has helped his clients recover over $25 billion.
Jordan is recognized as a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation and is listed as a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 in their Securities Litigation: Plaintiff rankings.
Representative Matters
- Federal Housing Finance Agency v. Nomura, et al.: Served as trial counsel in a one-month trial in the Southern District of New York, in which the Federal Housing Finance Agency obtained an $800 million judgment, as well as attorneys’ fees, from Nomura and RBS based on findings the investment banks had made false statements to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in offering materials for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS).
- Other Federal Housing Finance Agency litigations: In Southern District of New York, District of Connecticut, and Central District of California, represented the Federal Housing Finance Agency in obtaining $25 billion in recoveries from Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Countrywide, Deutsche Bank, First Horizon, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, RBS, and UBS, an amount far in excess of what prosecutors and regulators had obtained.
- Represented mutual fund shareholders who purchased, sold, or liquidated mutual fund shares managed by Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC’s Structured Property Groups from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2020, securing a $145 million settlement. The suit alleged that, instead of managing the Mutual Funds as represented, AllianzGI prioritized returns over risk management in ways that were fundamentally inconsistent with AllianzGI’s representations concerning the Mutual Funds Principal Investment Strategies.
- Crypto-asset investors, alleging that Jump Trading LLC engaged in a scheme to manipulate the market price of the crypto-assets UST and aUST in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act.
- Crypto-asset investors in a suit alleging that Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto-asset exchanges, offered and sold billions of dollars of unregistered digital tokens to investors in violation of federal and state securities laws. After a district court dismissed the case, obtained a unanimous reversal from a Second Circuit panel.
- Crypto-asset investors who traded on BitMEX, a large cryptocurrency exchange and derivatives trading platform, in a case that asserts violations of the Commodity Exchange Act against BitMEX and its founders. Defeated a motion to dismiss in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- Crypto-asset investors who traded on Coinbase in a suit contending that the crypto-asset exchange platform illegally offered and sold digital tokens that are unregistered securities. After a district court judgement dismissed claims for Securities Act and state law violations, obtained a unanimous reversal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- Crypto-asset investors who traded TRX, a crypto-token created by the TRON Foundation, in a case alleging that the company and its founder misled investors by promoting, offering, and selling TRX in violation of federal and state securities laws. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, allowing our clients’ Securities Act Section 12(a)(1) and related control person and state law securities claims to proceed to discovery.
- Mudrick Capital Management L.P., et al. v. QuarterNorth Energy Inc., et al.: In the Delaware Court of Chancery, representing former holders of warrants in QuarterNorth Energy, Inc., who allege that the board of directors and controlling stockholders undervalued their warrants when conducting a contractually required anti-dilution adjustment in connection with a dividend to stockholders.
- Mudrick Capital Management, L.P. v. Globalstar, Inc.: At trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery, represented plaintiff seeking defendant’s books and records, including e-mails, pursuant to Section 220 of Delaware’s General Corporation Law to investigate an allegedly unfair merger initiated by defendant’s controlling shareholder. In an order adopting many of our factual allegations regarding the proposed merger, the defendant was ordered to produce corporate books and records, including e-mails, from the defendant’s CEO., the general counsel, and the chair of the special committee that had approved the merger. One day after this ruling, the challenged merger was called off.
- Frontline, Ltd. v. DHT Holdings, Inc.: In parallel proceedings in New York and the Marshall Islands, represented Frontline in its attempted takeover of DHT Holdings. Frontline sought to force DHT’s board of directors, based on their Revlon and Unocal duties, to redeem a poison pill and remove other entrenchment measures that the DHT board had allegedly enacted to deter bidders.
- Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. v. JPMorgan Chase Bank; Syncora Guarantee Inc. v. Jefferson County, Ala.: In New York Supreme Court, defeated motions to dismiss claims of two monoline insurers against JPMorgan and Jefferson County, Alabama in suits alleging fraud in connection with the procurement of municipal bond insurance and seeking hundreds of millions in damages for past and future claims payments.
- Kearny Investors S.A.R.L. v. Goldman Sachs & Co.: In the Southern District of New York, represented multiple KKR funds against Goldman Sachs and other investment banks based on alleged violations of federal and state securities laws arising from the issuance of SunEdison securities.
- An insurance company in tax refund litigation against the IRS/DOJ concerning billions of dollars in potential tax liability, which addressed the substance-over-form doctrine and whether the company was entitled to certain foreign tax credits it had claimed in cross-border financing transactions.
- Article 77 Proceedings re Countrywide and JPMorgan Settlements: In New York Supreme Court, represented investor AIG in proceedings initiated by RMBS trustees over the distribution methodology of an $8.5 billion settlement with Bank of America and a $4.5 billion settlement with JPMorgan.
- MBIA Ins. Corp. v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc.: In New York Supreme Court, represented monoline insurer MBIA in obtaining a confidential settlement in multi-billion-dollar action concerning credit default swaps and financial guaranties written by Merrill Lynch on CDOs.
- SemGroup adversary proceedings: In Delaware Bankruptcy Court, represented the SemGroup Litigation Trust, instituted following SemGroup’s bankruptcy, in obtaining confidential settlement of claims against entities and individuals who allegedly orchestrated fraudulent transfers and breaches of fiduciary duties.
- In re Treasuries Securities Auction antitrust litigation: In the Southern District of New York, served as co-lead class action counsel in a suit alleging violations of Sherman Antitrust Act based on collusion by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and market participants in the $14 trillion primary and secondary markets for U.S. Treasury.
- Represented a CEO in an employment dispute. Obtained a seven-figure settlement without having to initiate litigation.
- Crypto-asset investors: Represented investors in 13 class actions against five of the world’s major crypto-asset exchanges and seven digital token issuers, which allegedly offered and sold billions of dollars of unregistered digital tokens and other financial instruments to investors in violation of federal and state law.
- FOIA request in pro bono matter on behalf of a political scientist at Columbia University seeking access from the U.S. Census Bureau to critical data to investigate evidence of bias in the 2020 Census. Following initiation of the litigation, the Census Bureau publicly disclosed the requested material.
Jordan earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his M.B.A. with honors from Harvard Business School. He clerked for the Honorable Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Jordan subsequently served in the U.S. Department of Justice, first in the Office of Legal Counsel, advising on a range of sensitive criminal and civil matters, and then as Special Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, supervising and acting as trial and appellate counsel in multiple high-profile trials and proceedings.
