Ilex Investments LP, et al. v. Bitran, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 12-178-16)
1 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS SUFFOLK, ss. SUPERIOR COURT SUCV2013-00489-BLS2 ILEX INVESTMENTS LP, CRAWFORD LIVING TRUST, & GEORGE CRAWFORD, Plaintiffs vs. GABRIEL BITRAN, MARCO BITRAN, DEVORAH BITRAN, GMB GLOBAL MULTI-STRATEGY, LP, GMB GLOBAL MULTI-STRATEGY OFFSHORE, LTD, & GMB GLOBAL MASTER FUND, LP, Defendants MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT This is an action to recover investment losses of $ 1.5 million. The plaintiffs, Ilex Investments, LP, Crawford Living Trust, and George Crawford, filed suit against the defendants, Gabriel Bitran (Gabriel), Marco Bitran (Marco), Devorah Bitran, GMB Global Multi-Strategy, LP (GMB Global), GMB Global Multi-Strategy Offshore, Ltd (GMB Offshore), and GMB Global Master Fund, LP (GMB Master), asserting claims of fraudulent misrepresentation and fraudulent concealment (Count I), negligent misrepresentation (Count II), and fraud in the inducement (Count III). Plaintiffs now move for summary judgment on all counts asserted against defendants GMB Global, GMB Offshore, and GMB Master. Drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the defendants, this Court concludes that summary judgment in plaintiffs’ favor is not appropriate. 2 BACKGROUND The record before this Court reveals the following facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the defendants. 1 In April and May of 2008, the plaintiffs invested $ 1.5 million in two investment funds, GMB Global and GMB Offshore, which Gabriel and Marco founded, organized, and managed. Gabriel was a professor at and former dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Marco was formerly an investment manager at Wellington Capital Management, an investment management company with billions of dollars in assets. The funds claimed to use models, developed through Gabriel’s academic research, in order to determine what investments to make and sought to optimize portfolios of stocks and other assets – also based on Gabriel’s models — in order to estimate price distributions in the stock market. The funds marketed themselves, in both written materials and through the Bitrans’ statements, by touting a performance track record from January 1998 to August 2006 showing a 16.2 percent annualized return based on actual investments that were made using these models. Gabriel represented himself as a manager of the funds. Plaintiff Crawford is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a corporate attorney who has practiced for 34 years at the international law firm of Jones Day. He is also an experienced investor: from 1998 to 2000, Crawford managed his own hedge fund with $ 40 million in assets. Crawford spoke to Gabriel and Marco for two to three hours before deciding to invest in the funds. Crawford discussed his investment in the funds with Richard Berner, who was also a sophisticated investor. The parties dispute whether Crawford received a written private placement memorandum or PPM prior to investing […]