Favorable Judgments Entered After SKAT Litigation Win

March 15, 2025 – Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered 45 judgments, one for each of the cases consolidated for trial, based on February's jury verdict in favor of firm client Skatteforvaltningen (SKAT), the Customs and Tax Administration of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Collectively, the judgments total approximately $475 million, including approximately $190 million for which the two main defendants Richard Markowitz and John van Merkensteijn are jointly and severally liable. In a memorandum on the judgments, the court explained that it was entering them on SKAT's fraud claims, but in the “hypothetical absence of liability on the fraud claims," the court would have entered judgments in the same amount based on the jury's verdict finding the defendants liable for negligent misrepresentation. And in the “hypothetical absence" of liability on both fraud and negligent misrepresentation, the court would have entered judgments in the amounts the jury awarded SKAT on its restitution claims.

The first trial comprised all SKAT's claims against Markowitz and van Merkensteijn and their spouses and pension plans in 45 cases. The claims against Markowitz and van Merkensteijn's friends and family members, whom they recruited to the scheme and SKAT sued alongside Markowitz and van Merkensteijn in 28 of the cases, were left for a separate trial. Since the trial did not resolve SKAT's claims against all defendants in the 28 “friends and family" cases, Judge Kaplan certified the judgments against Markowitz and van Merkensteijn in those cases as final pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b). The trial of SKAT's claims against the friends and family is scheduled for later this year.

Law360 reported on the judgments.

Marc Weinstein, Bill Maguire, Neil Oxford and Dustin Smith lead the Hughes Hubbard team representing SKAT, with key assistance from John McGoey, Greg Farrell, Carolyn Harbus, Scott Sanders, Jessica Lagnado, Debbie Placid, Elizabeth Zhou, James Henseler, Erin Pamukcu, Kiran Rosenkilde and Richard Bosch.