Craig A. Boneau
Craig is a partner at Reid Collins & Tsai in the Austin office. Craig appears in federal and state courts and arbitrations across the country representing plaintiffs in professional-liability litigation, including legal and audit malpractice, financial-fraud-based litigation, insolvency disputes, and cross-border financial litigation.
Craig believes there is no one-size fits all approach to the type of complex, often cross-border, commercial cases he handles, and so he works with his clients to create a strategy that puts each client in the best position to succeed. That approach means being thoughtful from the outset of a potential litigation, before anything is ever filed, and often includes weighing the benefits of initiating the lawsuit in each of the available jurisdictions before determining which one provides the client with the best chance to succeed on its claims.
Craig regularly brings professional malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty (including against directors and officers), fraud, and fraudulent transfer claims on behalf of his clients against some of the largest institutions in the world. In doing so, he often represents the victims of financial fraud, including companies, hedge funds, and private equity funds. Many of Craig’s clients are in insolvency proceedings, and so his representations include working on behalf of court-appointed trustees and receivers.
Craig has broad experience handling cross-border insolvency cases. He has represented liquidators and creditors in a variety of off-shore matters, including the Bear Stearns Feeder Funds, Ocean Rig, ICP Strategic Credit Income Fund, Fletcher Income Leveraged Fund, AJW Master Fund, CK Pearl Fund, and Trade and Commerce Bank. Craig has pursued both U.S. and foreign-law claims on behalf of liquidators in the context of a Chapter 15 proceeding, as well as in state court.
In 2020 and 2019, Craig was named as one of the 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers by Lawdragon.
Notable Representations:
- Craig represents the bankruptcy trustee of a insurance brokerage firm asserting breach of fiduciary duty claims against the firm’s principals.
- Craig represents private equity firm that purchased over $100 million in notes from a drug-development fund asserting claims for breach of the notes against the principals of the drug-development fund.
- Craig represented a founder of a private equity firm asserting claims against his client’s co-founders for the theft of his client’s ownership interest in the firm that assisted the co-founders. The case settled on confidential terms.
- Craig represented the Cayman Island liquidators of the Bear Stearns feeder funds asserting a $500 million legal malpractice claim against a major U.S. law firm. The case settled on confidential terms prior to a decision on a motion to dismiss.
- Craig represented an E&P oil and gas company in its $100 million suit against an investment fund and its partner for misappropriating confidential information obtained under an NDA to usurp a deal for a oil and gas property. The suit settled on confidential terms after Craig’s client defeated a motion to dismiss and an appeal of the trial court’s decision.
- Craig represented the litigation trustee for the estates of a group of health-care related entities in its breach of fiduciary duty and fraudulent transfer claims against its former directors and officers. The matter settled for a confidential amount prior to the initiation of litigation.
- Craig represented the litigation trustee for the estate of a bank holding company in claims against the former directors and officers for breaches of fiduciary duty and against the former auditor for audit malpractice. The matter settled for a confidential amount prior to the initiation of litigation.
- Craig represented the SEC-appointed receiver to recover assets in connection with a $475 million Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Trevor Cook, including pursuing fraudulent transfer claims against a futures commission merchants.
- Craig represented a litigation trustee for a group of bankrupt funds that were part of an investment structure run out of New York. The funds include Cayman Island and Bermuda based funds. Craig is pursued fraudulent conveyance, negligence, and fraud claims against the funds’ professional service providers. The matter was successfully settled.
- Craig represents the liquidators of Cayman hedge funds that invested in a group of failed CDOs. Craig is currently pursuing claims against a large, international law firm for its alleged role in a multimillion-dollar fraud on the funds. The representation also included pursuit of U.S.-law and Cayman-Island-law based fraudulent conveyance claims against a large international bank which has since been successfully settled.
- Craig represented the Texas County Retirement Systems, a governmental pension fund, in pursuit of its fraud claims against a number of international banks related to the pension fund’s investment in RMBS. The case has been resolved.
- Craig represented a group of funds in a $95 million legal malpractice case against a major international law firm arising out of its negligence representation in connection with a CLO warehouse extension. The case was successfully settled on confidential terms.
- Craig represented the Chapter 7 trustee of the bankruptcy estate of a New York investment fund that was an estimated $400-million Ponzi scheme. Craig pursued fraudulent transfers on behalf of the estate against futures commission merchants. The cases were successfully settled on confidential terms.
- Craig represented a bank in pursuit of fraud claims against an underwriter and servicer of various RMBS arising from the bank’s purchase of the fraudulent RMBS. The case was successfully settled on the eve of trial on confidential terms.