One of hedge funds’ longest-running legal battles is set to ramp up again with $165 million in pay on the line

A legal battle that has spanned close to two decades is getting ready to rev up once again.

In December of 2008, weeks after Barack Obama was elected as President for the first time, Gentry Beach sued his former employer, Touradji Capital, over compensation he believed he was owed.

His former colleague, Robert Vollero, was added to the suit in early 2009.

The pair’s argument was straightforward: Paul Touradji, the founder of his namesake hedge fund, had verbally agreed to pay them a fixed percentage of the profits generated by their trading ideas.

They claimed they were owed $60 million.

Touradji, a Tiger Cub who once worked for Julian Robertson and has since wound down his fund, said all bonuses were discretionary.

Now, nearly two decades and countless trials, appeals, and motions later, the case is set to go to trial again in late October, with $165 million in compensation in the balance, thanks to nearly 20 years of interest.

At a virtual pretrial conference on Wednesday, both sides noted how long the case has been going. “We all want this over with,” said Michael Stolper, a partner of Seiden Law, which is representing the two traders.

The practical challenges of going to trial in a case involving conversations that happened before the financial crisis are plentiful, especially given that the argument hinges on an oral agreement. “Witnesses’ memories fade,” said Andrew Clubok, a partner at Latham & Watkins, which is representing Touradji. “Some of them aren’t spring chickens,” he said, about some of the witnesses.

Testimony in the past has been collected from the three individuals at the center of the case, as well as industry players such as Todd Kantor, the founder of Encompass Capital Advisors who once worked for Touradji, and Josh Goldstein, the COO of Verition Capital Management who was at a competing firm during the time the case is focused on.

In 2019, the case seemed over with the two traders coming out on top and winning $90 million (the jury awarded the pair $45 million of the $60 million they had originally sued for, plus interest).

A jury agreed that the two had legitimate oral agreements with Touradji.

A year later, the First Department, an appellate division of New York’s Supreme Court, vacated the ruling due to issues in the evidentiary and discovery processes.

The second trial ended in 2023 with a deadlocked jury, and additional rulings from the First Department have this case entering its third trial in the state’s Supreme Court with the central question — are these traders owed money — still unresolved.

At least one side hopes the coming argument is the last. “I don’t want a fourth trial,” Stolper said Wednesday.