Carmine D. Boccuzzi’s litigation and arbitration practice covers a broad range of complex civil litigation matters.

He focuses on international disputes, including those involving foreign states and state-owned entities, as well as disputes involving the capital markets and antitrust issues.

Carmine joined the firm in 1994 and became partner in 2003.

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Notable Experience

Notable Victories

  • U.S. and international institutions in obtaining affirmance in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of the dismissal of claims asserted in the bankruptcy court by Lehman Brothers Special Financing seeking approximately $1 billion in termination payments in connection with 44 synthetic collateralized debt obligations. In re Lehman Brothers Holding.

  • BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, and other European banks in obtaining dismissal of actions brought under the civil provisions of the federal Anti-Terrorism Act and state law theories, in which the banks are accused of having provided material support for terrorist acts as a result of the banks’ violation of U.S. sanctions.

  • Robert Bosch GmbH and Robert Bosch LLC, in obtaining summary judgment defeating RICO claim for upwards of one billion dollars in alleged damages by Volkswagen franchised dealerships stemming from VW’s admission of diesel emissions cheating.

  • The Republic of Argentina in obtaining in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmance of dismissals of claims to principal and interest as time-barred under the applicable New York statute of limitations, as well as the rejection of renewed pari passu claims. (Bison Bee LLC, Lucesco v. The Republic of Argentina)

  • The Province of Mendoza in a 7-0 ruling from the New York State Court of Appeals finding claims for unpaid interest to be time-barred where underlying principal claims were otherwise barred by the statute of limitations (Ajdler v. Province of Mendoza)

  • Citigroup in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in obtaining the affirmance of the dismissal of plaintiffs’ attempt to reopen the settlement of prior disputes concerning investments in the Brazilian telecommunications sector (Dantas et al. v. Citibank et al.).

  • Citi Hedge Fund Services in obtaining dismissal, in both the district court and on appeal, of purported class actions seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in connection with the collapse of Madoff “feeder” hedge funds, (In re Kingate Mgm’t Ltd.)

  • BNP Paribas in obtaining dismissal, in both the district court and on appeal, of attempts by plaintiffs to obtain worldwide discovery and asset freezes in connection with judgments against various foreign states (Leibovitch, et al., v. BNP Paribas et al.).

  • BNP Paribas and HSBC in securing the dismissal, in both the district court and on appeal, of $5.5 billion civil RICO and related state law claims asserted against the banks based upon allegations that the banks are responsible for helping Cuba avoid U.S. sanctions thereby frustrating plaintiffs’ ability to collect on judgments against Cuba (Villoldo v. BNPP and BNPP North America Inc.).

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Civil Litigation

  • Robert Bosch GmbH and Robert Bosch LLC in multidistrict litigation and other proceedings in the United States arising from allegations that Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche used equipment supplied by Bosch to manipulate the results of diesel vehicle emissions tests; and in multidistrict litigation in the United States alleging diesel emissions manipulation by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, as well as in diesel emissions litigation involving other vehicle manufacturers, including General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Ford, and BMW.

  • Since 2002, successfully defending the Republic of Argentina in cases brought against it in connection with the country’s 2001 economic crisis, including obtaining the vacatur of over $2 billion in class judgments (Seijas v. Argentina), securing dismissal of a purported class action seeking over $350 million in connection with missed interest payments on defaulted bonds (DRAW Capital v. Argentina), defeating attempts to attach assets of Argentina and its instrumentalities (NML Capital Ltd. v. Argentina, Aurelius Capital Partners, LP v. Republic of Argentina), and to enjoin the launch and subsequent closing of capital markets transactions by the Republic (Rossini v. Argentina, Urban v. Argentina).

  • Citigroup and various affiliates in lawsuits arising out of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, In re Irving H. Picard and In re Fairfield Sentry Ltd.

  • Foreign bank in connection with allegations of collusive trading in violation of the federal antitrust laws.

  • Financial institutions in obtaining the dismissal from federal court of antitrust claims under both the Sherman Act and New York State Donnelly Act, including in Williams v. Citigroup, Inc.

  • Various Fitch Ratings entities in litigation in California state court concerning the rating of structured investment vehicles.

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International Litigation and Arbitration

  • Mashreqbank in obtaining a 6-0 ruling from the New York State Court of Appeals dismissing on grounds of forum non conveniens of claims asserted by a Saudi partnership (Mashreqbank v. Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi).

  • Foreign states in arbitrations challenging default and restructuring of state-issued debt.

  • Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned oil company, in defeating claims by bondholders (Rogers v. Petroleo Brasileiro, S.A.).

  • Citigroup in obtaining a series of injunctions against a former manager charged with overseeing its investment in the Brazilian telecommunications sector (International Equity Investments, Inc. v. Opportunity Equity Partners, Ltd.).

  • A Citigroup-related entity in four ICC arbitrations concerning corporate control of Brasil Telecom.

  • Obtained the vacatur of an attachment against an instrumentality of the Republic of Chile, successfully arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction to restrain an electronic funds transfer of a non-judgment debtor (Macatra B.V. v. Destiny Navigation).

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Capital Markets and Securities Litigation

  • Mergers and acquisition-related litigation, including the acquirer in In re: Ness Techs Shareholders Litig. and Botton v. Ness Techs Inc. 

  • Members of Citigroup’s Board of Directors in obtaining the dismissal of numerous derivative actions alleging that the directors failed to implement appropriate internal control systems, which dismissal was affirmed on appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court.

  • Over a dozen investment banks in obtaining dismissal of securities fraud claims by classes of holders of debt and equity securities issued by HealthSouth Corporation, In re HealthSouth Corporation Securities Litig.

  • FleetBoston Financial Group in the affirmance of a defense verdict in an action seeking in excess of $300 million arising from the administration of a benefits plan.

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Pro Bono Litigation

  • Winning the release from prison of former death row inmate Erskine Johnson following more than 15 years of advocacy in Johnson v. Tennessee.

  • The American Sociological Association in matters regarding marriage equality, including the filing of amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeal.

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SELECTED ACTIVITIES

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  • Member, Federal Bar Council
  • Board Member, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest 

Publications

Second Circuit Holds Section 1782 Discovery Is Not Available In An ICSID Arbitration

After Chevron: What the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Decision Changed, And What It Didn’t 

U.S. Supreme Court Rules That Judges, Not Arbitrators, Decide if A Dispute Is Arbitrable When Multiple Agreements Conflict On The Question 

New York Court of Appeals Holds that Venezuelan Law Governs the Validity of PDVSA’s 2020 Bonds 

Second Circuit Affirms Syndicated Loans Are Not Securities, Avoiding Market Disruption 

Second Circuit Rules FSIA Sovereign Immunity Defenses May Be Raised Where a Defendant Gains Sovereign Status After the Lawsuit is Filed 

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Due Process Challenge to Statute Requiring Out-of-State Corporations to Submit to General Personal Jurisdiction 

U.S. Supreme Court Rules That An Appeal Of An Order Denying A Motion To Compel Arbitration Automatically Stays District Court Proceedings

New York State Legislature Considers Sovereign Debt Restructuring Legislation

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Anti-Terrorism Act Claims Against Social Media Platforms Used By ISIS

U.S. Supreme Court Holds FSIA Does Not Immunize Foreign Sovereigns From Criminal Prosecution

Five International Arbitration Trends And Topics For 2023

What’s at Stake in Halkbank Sanctions High Court Case

What the U.S. Supreme Court’s Latest Ruling Means for Section 1782 Discovery in Investor-State Arbitration

Creditor Files SDNY Lawsuit Against Sri Lanka in Connection With Its Sovereign Debt Default, Asserting Breach of Contract and Pari Passu Claims

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Applicability of Section 1782 Discovery Statute With Respect to Private Commercial and Treaty Arbitrations

Second Circuit Rules Foreign State-Owned Bank Does Not Have Sovereign Immunity From Criminal Prosecution

Second Circuit Rules That International Comity and New York’s ‘Separate Entity’ Rule May Prevent Asset Restraint Orders From Reaching Assets Held at Bank’s Foreign Branches

Second Circuit Dismisses Antitrust Claims Against Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies Based on International Comity

Second Circuit Reinforces Its Approach To Section 1782 While U.S. Supreme Court Case On Application Of Section 1782 To Private International Arbitration Remains Pending 

U.S. Supreme Court Revisits the Contours of Specific Personal Jurisdiction 

The Scope of Immunity for International Organizations Comes Under Scrutiny Again, Two Years After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision in Jam v. International Finance Corporation 

U.S. Supreme Court Defines Contours of FSIA’s Expropriation Exception 

Second Circuit Rules That Provisions in Lehman CDOS Setting Payment Priorities Are Protected by Safe Harbor 

SDNY Denies Securities Fraud TRO And Upholds Ecuador’s Use Of Collective Action Clauses In Sovereign Debt Restructuring

SDNY District Court Rules Foreign Sovereigns Are Not Immune From Criminal Jurisdiction In U.S. Court

Circuit Split Intensifies Over Use of 28 U.S.C. § 1782 to Obtain Discovery for Use in Private International Arbitration

Supreme Court Holds That New York Convention Does Not Preclude Non-Signatories From Invoking State Law Principles To Compel Arbitration

SDNY Holds Syndicated Loans Are Not Securities, Rejecting Challenge That Threatened to Disrupt $2 Trillion Market During COVID-19 Crisis 

AG MIT CMO, LLC v. RBC (Barbados) Trading Corp.: Initial Post-COVID-19 Litigation Challenges to Closeouts of Repurchase Agreements

Second Circuit Affirms Applicability of Section 10(b)’s Heightened Pleading Standard on Wrongdoing Underlying Misstatement or Omission

Implications of PDVSA Alter Ego Decision for Other Sovereigns

D.C. Circuit Rules in Special Counsel Mueller Investigation That State-Owned Corporations Are Subject to Criminal Jurisdiction in the United States

SDNY Rules on Scope of Section 560 Safe Harbor in Lehman Bankruptcy

CFPB Issues Final Rule on Arbitration Agreements in Financial Products and Services Contracts, October 2017

Second Circuit Confirms That an Arbitral Award That Has Been Nullified at the Seat of the Arbitration Should Rarely Be Enforced, July 27, 2017

Second Circuit Rules That FSIA Provides Sole Basis for Jurisdiction Over Foreign Sovereigns in Actions to Enforce ICSID Awards, July 17, 2017

CFPB Issues Final Rule on Arbitration Agreements in Financial Products and Services Contracts, July 13, 2017

U.S. Supreme Court Holds That State Courts Lack Specific Personal Jurisdiction to Entertain Non-Residents’ Claims for Injuries Not Connected to In-State Conduct, June 20, 2017

U.S. Supreme Court Reaffirms That Corporate Defendants Are Subject to General Personal Jurisdiction Only Where They Are “At Home,” May 30, 2017 (republished in the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation on June 14, 2017)

U.S. Supreme Court: Hague Service Convention Permits Service of Process by Mail, May 23, 2017

Supreme Court Adopts Exacting Approach to Jurisdictional Inquiry Under FSIA’s Expropriation Exception, May 2, 2017

“Derivatives,” with Thomas Moloney, Roger Cooper and Rishi Zutshi, Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts, Fourth Edition (Thomson Reuters and the American Bar Association Section of Litigation), February 23, 2017

The Year in Review: An Annual Survey of International Legal Developments, Chapter on International Litigation, ABA/Section of International Law, Vol. 51, 2017

“Defences,” Sovereign Debt Management, edited by Rosa M. Lastra and Lee Buchheit (Oxford University Press), 2014

“U.S. Supreme Court Sharply Limits General Jurisdiction Over Corporate Defendants,” with Jonathan I. Blackman and Mitchell A. Lowenthal, Corporation (Aspen Publishers), Vol. 85, No. 5, pp. 4, March 3, 2014

Contributor to the treatise, U.S. Regulation of the International Securities and Derivatives Markets (11th ed.)

Co-author, along with Cleary Gottlieb partners Thomas J. Moloney and Roger A. Cooper of Chapter 70, “Derivatives” in the treatise Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (Third Edition)

Events