Loginovskaya v. Batratchenko

764 F.3d 266, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 17257, 2014 WL 4358439
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided September 4, 2014·No. Docket No. 13-1624-cv·Published·Cited by 53 cases

Opinions

Judge LOHIER dissents in a separate opinion.

DENNIS JACOBS, Circuit Judge:

Ludmila Loginovskaya appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Oetken, J.), dismissing, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), her claims under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”), 7 U.S.C. § 1 et seq., and declining to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over her state law claims. The district court held that the domestic transaction test announced in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., 561 U.S. 247, 130 S.Ct. 2869, 177 L.Ed.2d 535 (2010), applies to Loginovskaya’s CEA claim, and that her Amended Complaint failed to adequately allege a domestic transaction. Because the district court dismissed Loginovskaya’s only federal claim, it declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over her remaining state law claims. On appeal, Loginov-skaya argues the district court erred in its application of Morrison.

Applying the reasoning of Morrison, we agree with the district court that a private right of action brought under CEA § 22 is limited to claims alleging a commodities transaction within the United States.1 Because Loginovskaya fails to allege a domestic commodities transaction, we affirm the district court’s judgment. Because we affirm on the basis of § 22, we do not reach Loginovskaya’s argument regarding the territorial reach of the antifraud provision in CEA § 4o.

BACKGROUND2

The Thor Group, an international financial services organization based in New York, manages investment programs, chiefly in commodities futures and real estate. Among the Thor Group entities are: 1) Thor Guarant, which invests in real estate holdings and development; 2) Thor Optima, which invests in options, futures, securities, and financial instruments; and 3) Thor Opti-Max, which invests in the combined assets of Thor Guarant and Thor Optima. Also part of the Thor Group is Thor United, an entity that maintains “integrated accounts” through which it invests in Thor Guarant, Thor Optima, and Thor Opti-Max on behalf of investors. Several Thor entities are registered participants in the commodities markets as commodity pool operators or commodity trading advisors. Am. Compl., J.A. at 72-73.

Defendant Oleg Batratchenko, a U.S. citizen resident in Moscow, is the Group’s chief executive officer; in this role, he is a director for the three Thor programs. Defendant Tatiana Smirnova is a director for the Thor Opti-Max and Thor Guarant programs, and has served in various managerial capacities in the Thor entities.

Loginovskaya, a Russian citizen residing in Russia, was solicited by Batratchenko in January 2006 to invest in the Thor programs. Id. at 57. He provided her with brochures, investment memoranda, and other materials, written in Russian, describing the opportunity. Id. Batratchen-ko and his agents represented to her that [269]*269she could withdraw her principal and returns at any time upon a set period of notice, that risk would be controlled, that the funds were managed by experienced experts in futures trading and investment (Peter Kambolin and Alexei Chekhlov), and that the programs would be audited regularly by reputable firms. Id. at 57-58.

Influenced by these representations, Lo-ginovskaya entered into two investment contracts with Batratchenko and Thor United in 2006 and 2007. These contracts expressly incorporated the investment memoranda earlier provided to Loginov-skaya. Pursuant to the contracts, Logi-novskaya transferred a total of $720,000 to Thor United’s bank accounts in New York, which were subsequently drawn down to a remaining principal of $590,000.

Loginovskaya’s account statements over ensuing years generally showed positive returns. Around May 2009, Loginovskaya sought to realize her gains and withdraw her remaining account funds. No money was forthcoming, and no further monthly account statement was dispatched until the statement dated November 2009, which reported for the first time that her investment had lost more' than half its value since May., Loginovskaya again requested the return of her funds, unsuccessfully.

Investors were put off with false assurances that the programs were experiencing a temporary dip in liquidity, that cash would be available shortly, and that the Thor programs would be providing detailed financial statements to the investors. An April 2010 letter from Batratchenko falsely contended that, “due to onerous new regulations in the United States, investors could not withdraw their funds from the investment accounts without providing” burdensome documentation. Id. at 66 (emphasis omitted).

Since 2010, Loginovskaya has learned that the Thor programs used investors’ funds in a manner inconsistent with the investment contracts. Between 2006 and 2009, Batratchenko caused the Thor entities to extend $40 million in unsecured loans to Atlant Capital Holdings LLC. Id. at 67. Atlant, which is not an affiliate of the Thor programs, makes equity investments in commercial and residential property in New York using funds loaned by Thor Real Estate Master Fund, Ltd. At-lant was undercapitalized, its real estate investments failed, the unsecured loans were defaulted, and the Thor entities could not recover Loginovskaya’s funds. Ba-tratchenko and Smirnova had personal financial interests in Atlant’s real estate activity. See id. at 67-70.

This action was commenced in January 2012; the Amended Complaint, filed in June 2012, alleged that the defendants engaged in fraudulent conduct in violation of CEA § 4o, and in violation of state law. The district court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the CEA claim under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a cause of action, on the ground that the CEA claim failed Morrison’s domestic transaction test. See Loginovskaya v. Batratchenko, 986 F.Supp.2d 357, 867-75 (S.D.N.Y.2013). Because Loginovskaya failed to allege a plausible federal cause of action, the court declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over her state law claims. See id. at 375.

On appeal, Loginovskaya argues the district court erred in applying the Morrison test to her CEA claim.

DISCUSSION

“We review de novo the grant of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).” Harris v. Mills, 572 F.3d 66, 71 (2d Cir. 2009). “We consider the legal sufficiency [270]*270of the complaint, taking its factual allegations to be true and drawing all reasonable inferences in the plaintiffs favor.” Id. “ ‘To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Cohen v. S.A.C. Trading Corp., 711 F.3d 353, 359 (2d Cir.2013) (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal,

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Loginovskaya v. Batratchenko, 764 F.3d 266, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 17257, 2014 WL 4358439 (2d Cir. 2014).

764 F.3d 266 (Loginovskaya v. Batratchenko) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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