California Electricity & Gas Price Manipulation
Natural Gas Antitrust Cases
In June 2007, the Court granted final approval to a $67.39 million settlement of a series of class action lawsuits brought by California business and residential consumers of natural gas against a group of natural gas suppliers, Reliant Energy Services, Inc., Duke Energy Trading and Marketing LLC, CMS Energy Resources Management Company, and Aquila Merchant Services, Inc.
Plaintiffs charged defendants with manipulating the price of natural gas in California during the California energy crisis of 2000-2001 by a variety of means, including falsely reporting the prices and quantities of natural gas transactions to trade publications, which compiled daily and monthly natural gas price indices; prearranged wash trading; and, in the case of Reliant, "churning" on the Enron Online electronic trading platform, which was facilitated by a secret netting agreement between Reliant and Enron.
The 2007 settlement followed a settlement reach in 2006 for $92 million partial settlement with Coral Energy Resources, L.P.; Dynegy Inc. and affiliates; EnCana Corporation; WD Energy Services, Inc.; and The Williams Companies, Inc. and affiliates.
Earlier, in 2003, the Court approved a landmark of $1.1 billion settlement in class action litigation against El Paso Natural Gas Co. for manipulating the market for natural gas pipeline transmission capacity into California.
Lieff Cabraser served as Plaintiffs' Co-Lead Counsel and Co-Liaison Counsel in the Natural Gas Antitrust Cases I-IV.
Wholesale Electricity Antitrust Cases
Lieff Cabraser served as co-lead counsel in the private class action litigation against Duke Energy Trading & Marketing Reliant Energy, and The Williams Companies for claims that the companies manipulated California's wholesale electricity markets during the California energy crisis of 2000-2001.
Extending the landmark victories for California residential and business consumers of electricity, in September 2004, plaintiffs reached a $206 million settlement with Duke Energy Trading & Marketing, and in August 2005, plaintiffs reached a $460 million settlement with Reliant Energy, settling claims that the companies manipulated California's wholesale electricity markets during the California energy crisis of 2000-01.
Lieff Cabraser earlier entered into a settlement for over $400 million with The Williams Companies.
About Lieff Cabraser
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP is a sixty-plus attorney law firm that has represented plaintiffs nationwide since 1972. We have offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville. We represent plaintiffs in class and group actions and in individual lawsuits in cases involving substantial losses. For the last seven years, The National Law Journal has selected Lieff Cabraser as one of the top plaintiffs' law firms in the nation.
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